Planning is relaxing??

The government is giving a 'presumption to Yes' for sustainable development.  

Some of the local authorities I am dealing with are already exercising this principle in advance of the changes being published for consultation in May, relaxing their conditions and being more positive.  

The 31st March ministerial release to local authorities:  

A new presumption in favour of sustainable development: This is a powerful new principle underpinning the planning system that will help to ensure that the default answer to development and growth is "yes" rather than "no", except where this would clearly compromise the key sustainable development principles in national planning policy, including protecting the Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The presumption will give developers, communities and investors greater certainty about the types of applications that are likely to be approved, and will help to speed up the planning process and encourage growth. A draft wording of the presumption will be published for consultation in May 2011.

The professional press is giving a flip-side of the story, and a useful alert for us, on the possibility of nimby's increasing the sustainability requirements for new housing to create more barriers for development.

For making more of emerging opportunities:

- add benefit to your current planning applications through heightening the profile still further of the sustainable aspects of your schemes, for example proximity to public transport and building performance

- support your applications still further through, wherever possible, exceeding Building Regulations in areas of little extra cost to the client, for example insulation requirements

- consider reviving previously stalled schemes that might be revised to become more acceptable in the emerging permissive regime. Consider my input on these schemes as a fresh eye and a different approach - Follow this link to see an outline of my approach on single urban sites, do try and get past the interviewer's lengthy introduction. My work comes with a full money back guarantee on satisfaction of appropriate and proportionate professional content.

- ensure your evidence bases are concise yet giving the full picture. There will be fewer local authority staff to deal with your applications and so less time to spend on filling in gaps, carrying a risk of defaulting to a 'no' through lack of supporting information.