Coronavirus and Planning

David Kemp, Qandor member and director of DRK Planning, explains how planning for construction is being done during the coronavirus crises.

Coronavirus and the current Government ‘lockdown’ continues to affect all walks of life and a huge number of businesses and individuals. Things are changing by the day, and often by the hour right now, so trying to keep up to date with everything you need to know is a huge challenge.

Nobody has all the answers at such an unprecedented time for the economy, but over the last few days we have begun to see possible answers to some understandable questions and concerns about the current situation.

Hopefully this overview will be helpful to you as you continue to plan and react to the global pandemic.

Preparing Planning Applications

As expected, the preparation of some applications is likely to be on hold for the following reasons:

• Movement restrictions preventing property surveys for floor plans and consultancy reports;
• LPA staff absences and additional burden to cope with enquiries.

Consultancy reports in some cases might not be possible, such as noise assessments or on-street parking surveys — these normally have to be done during school term times when traffic conditions are normal.

The Chief Planning Officer to the Government also indicated in a statement released on 24th March 2020 that applications for new offices and new homes are likely to be prioritised over smaller applications in order to “help the local economy,” and householder applications (e.g. smaller extensions and some types of permitted development). It is unclear though where the line is to be drawn.

You should therefore consider the following:

• Check with your LPA whether they would flexible on the need for some reports in these circumstances — some are adopting more flexible requirements and some are not;
• Consider trying at least to progress a case by way of pre-application: not all the usual information is required and you can at least test the proposals to some extent until you get the ‘green light’ from officers to move forward;
• Speak to your consultants and architects in advance and make sure that your matter is ‘booked-in’ so there are no bottlenecks later when restrictions are lifted, and your matter can be given priority by the team;
• Try to position the case or development proposals as high priority in some way, such as ‘important to the local economy.’

Decision making: officers and councillors & planning appeals

Delegated Decisions

Officers will be trying to make greater use of technology for meetings, such as video conferencing, but expect many to be harder to get hold of than usual — copy in team leaders if you have to ensure officer focus.

There may also be a greater use of delegated powers. This can be a good thing as it may speed up decision making, but you need to be sure that the application is not just being funnelled to an experienced junior officer who might rush a refusal just to get a decision out and the matter off their desk.

Planning Committees

The Government’s Chief Officer has encouraged LPAs to move matters that would have gone to Planning Committees back to approval by delegated powers. The law currently requires that Planning Committees have to sit in person, but the Government will amend the law (probably for 12 months) to allow the greater use of video conferencing. This will probably be used for the most controversial cases to allow speaking objectors and thus avoid storing up later legal challenges against the Council’s decision for not giving a fair hearing to objectors.

Section 106 Agreements & Viability

It will be interesting to see if Section 106 Agreements will be in some cases, where they only concern financial payments to the Council, to be dealt with by planning conditions instead. It goes without saying, of course, that if you have not signed your s106 Agreement yet, you need to review the viability of the scheme against the planned contributions or discuss with officers the scope for review, if dealing with a completed s106 Agreement.

Planning Appeals

Planning Appeal hearings and Public Inquiries that were meant to be heard in the next 6 months or so, or during movement restrictions, are under review. It may not be safe to progress with these and a further announcement is expected soon from the Government or Planning Inspectorate.

For all other appeals, including written representations and all other appeals yet to be heard, it is assumed for now these will carry on much as before, obviously subject to ‘social distancing’ (especially on site visits). In many cases, the administrative processes around them and leading up to them (e.g. submission of planning statements, case management) can be safely progressed in the current circumstances.

PD rights and lawful use changes

In order to deal with the current crisis, the Government has made it lawful for all cafes, pubs and restaurants to operate as takeaway instead — this power will be reviewed every 6 months and is due to expire after 12 months.

Restrictions on delivery and servicing to premises, such as through planning conditions, has been relaxed and Councils have been instructed by the Government to be pragmatic and bear in mind the current circumstances before taking enforcement action.

PD & Planning Permission time limits on current sites, e.g. offices

Many developers will be on site and will be ‘racing against the clock’ to try and save a planning permission or grant of prior approval. Our advice would be to do as much as you can SAFELY whilst construction activity is allowed; which might not be for much longer!

Seek extensions of time or re-apply for a further three years if you can, but in Article 4 areas with PD changes of use, where you cannot re-apply for PD, the situation is not certain. Our suggestion is either:

• Take advantage of the current ‘confusion’ — speak now to senior officers and try to agree some flexibility; OR
• Start on site as soon as possible then apply for building works (e.g. external changes, roof extension, new build) and include in the application form and papers that the lawful use of site has now changed — if granted, then it would probably be unlawful for the Council to go back on this (further legal advice may be necessary later).

Opportunities on the ‘other side’

The Government is still looking to progress new PD Rights for Roof Extensions and Housing: see ‘Planning for the Future’ (12 March 2020). A White Paper is expected in the Spring of 2020.

In the meantime, developers will need to secure a ‘pipeline’ of deals, making use where possible of Options and land deals, and it will no doubt be worth looking closely at Pubs, clubs, restaurants and retail, all of which will have come under severe financial pressure as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The prime Office sector may also be an interesting area for future development, in particular if company culture begins to shift away from the need for needing such large office space in some areas, with people and systems adapted to working from home, and possible long term efficiencies and methods of communication and client relationships changing as a result.

We are here to discuss any new opportunities and possible development sites with you and we will do our best to look after you through the current storm, as well as work with you to get your projects up and running again, so that we can all start to rebuild and grow following these turbulent and uncertain times.

Stay safe. Keep Well. Stay Home.

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