White Paper Series: Planning system shake-up

The entire planning and development sector woke up this morning to the eagerly anticipated Planning for The Future White Paper, confirming that the Town and Country Planning Act – which has steered the country’s built (and unbuilt) environment for more than 70 years is to be fundamentally changed.

There’s no doubt that the announcement has been greeted with a mix of excitement and trepidation.

Make no mistake, these are the biggest set of changes to planning law since the Town and Country Planning Act was introduced in the wake of WWII.  Our profession is going to need time to digest, unpack and analyse what this means in practice for our clients and the system as a whole.

Hot takes are one thing, but these sweeping reforms will impact bottom lines, and businesses of all shapes and sizes need insightful takeaways to plan for the future.

Planning Potential boasts specialist commercial, residential, leisure, heritage and communications teams. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be publishing bitesize breakdowns of the proposals, and – more importantly – explaining what this could mean in practice.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter now, so that you don’t miss the latest insight. Here’s a snapshot of what you can expect:

Best laid plans – how is ‘Planning For The Future’ going to change plan-making?

106 and CIL bite the dust – what comes next for developer contributions?

Green and pleasant land – what does the red tape bonfire mean for the country’s protected buildings and green space?

A cut above the test – changes are coming for the standard method

There’s nothing in this for E – the new use class E will help high streets, but what does ‘Planning For The Future’ do for town centres?

Permission accomplished – does de-facto zoning mean an end to traditional planning applications?

Scruton’s legacy – ‘Planning For The Future’ replaces subjectivity with guidelines, so who defines eligibility for beauty fast tracking?