planning update - issue two

Welcome to our second planning update! Time flies, six months since our last one but so much has happened, so we have lots to tell you about. This time around we have joined up with our property development team and we have prepared eight articles dealing with some of the hot topics in the planning and development worlds.

The biggest news of course is the change in government. Planning is a hugely political area of the law and it is not surprising that in the 'Coalition: our programme for government' document, which the cabinet office has recently published, there are the bones of policy and legislative change which will have a huge impact on the planning system. Although it is early days, we provide you with the headline announcements.

CIL was of course established by the previous administration but it is only relatively recently that the regulations came in to force and they have made some important changes to the law regulating planning obligations, we provide the details on this. The coalition has already started the overhaul of national planning policy with a revised PPS3 being recently published and more is promised to be on its way. We outline the changes (and difficulties) of the new housing policy as well as providing an overview of the recent additions to the suite of documents published by the previous government which we think you need to know about.

The courts have also been fairly active in the last six months and we have three articles dealing with some new cases. The first case concerns those matters which can be taken into account when a local planning authority are making a CPO and in particular whether consideration can be given to benefits on unconnected sites. Town and village greens have always been a useful tool in resisting development and it may just have become a little easier to obtain this status - read on to find out more. Finally the ECJ have also decided a case which provides further clarity on whether development agreements invoke the procurement regulations.

We hope you find this legal update useful. If you have any questions about the articles, or planning and development law in general, please do contact us.

Articles in this issue


Garden grabbing, densities and housing land supply 
Steve Coult gives an overview of the amended PPS3, issued last week.
Read the full article here

CIL and planning obligations 
Anna Eastgate looks at the future of planning obligations and recent developments in the regulations which apply to them.
Read the full article here

Sainsbury’s comes out on top but what principles are established for compulsory purchase law? 
Tom Edwards considers the recent decision of the Supreme Court which finally resolves a ten year legal battle between two of the UK’s largest retailers and whether a local planning authority can consider benefits which accrue on an unconnected site when considering using its CPO powers.
Read the full article here

Town and village greens – weapon of choice in guerrilla warfare against property developers?
Holly Mitchell considers the recent development of case law in respect of town and village greens and how this may be used by objectors to development in preventing development.
Read the full article here

What’s new in planning policy and procedures? 
Hilary Wrenn trawls through the latest amendments to national planning policy and tells you what you really need to know.
Read the full article here

Where are we going?
Tom Edwards takes a critical look at the coalition Government’s plans for the planning system.
Read the full article here

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme and the landlord and tenant relationship
Claire Gay looks at the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme and how this will impact upon the landlord and tenant relationship.
Read the full article here

Procurement and development agreements – the position after Müller 
Anna Stokes looks at the implications of the Müller case and the guidance it gives on whether development agreements are subject to the EU procurement rules.
Read the full article here



The content of this update is provided for the purposes of general interest and information. It contains only brief summaries of aspects of the subject matter and does not provide comprehensive statements of the law. It does not constitute legal advice and does not provide a substitute for it.

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