Updates were made to the General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) in May 2019.
This is the Statutory Instrument that allows certain works to be carried out without the need for obtaining planning permission. The summary below outline changes. Planning permission granted for new houses has increased to 80.5%, according to a new report from estate agency comparison site GetAgent.
During the last eight years, the number of granted planning applications for new homes has steadily increased. The percentage of planning applications that were granted permission in 2010 was 73.5%, which has went up by 7%. Economist Bridgett Rosewell led a review into the planning appeals process and has suggested timescales to be reduced by five months.
Currently, planning appeals take an average of 47 weeks. The review by Bridgette Rosewell was first announced in June 2018 with the objective to reduce the time taken to make decisions on planning appeals, whilst still ensuring quality decisions are being made. A recent High Court case cost a self-builder almost £40,000 in the loss of CIL exemptions.
The High Court decision, Shropshire Council v Secretary of State for the Communities and Local Government [2019] EWHC 16 (Admin), showed the importance of understanding CIL forms and how to submit them precisely and in a format set out in the CIL Regulations. Doing them incorrectly could cause self-builders to pay unnecessary penalties and surcharges. In the annual Spring Statement delivered to the House of Commons on 13 March, Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond announced a round of planning reforms that focus on the delivery of homes.
New planning guidelines supporting housing diversification, especially on bigger development sites, are expected to be introduced in the coming months to help meet a diverse range of housing needs. An independent report by Sir Oliver Letwin concluded that greater diversity in the types and tenures of housing on large sites is critical to build homes more quickly. Recent research has shown that over 2,000 villages in England are considered unsustainable for growth.
The Countryside Landowners Association (CLA) analysed 70 local plans for villages across the country. The research uncovered that 2,154 villages in England are considered to be unsustainable, which has pushed the CLA to call for planning criteria to be updated. |