In March 2025, Stuart was joined by a brilliant selection of experts for a look at the latest in planning law and the NPPF. Speakers included:
Claire Truman, Heritage Revival
Claire qualified as an architect in 2004, and joined the RIBA’s Conservation Register as Conservation Architect in June 2020. She is also an Affiliate Member of the Institute of Historic Buildings (IHBC). She also founded the RIBA’s Berkshire Women Architects’ Meet Up in 2017 which is a network to enhance shared experiences and opportunities.
Claire Fallows, Charles Russell Speechlys
Claire acts on major mixed-use and residential-led regeneration schemes, retail developments and strategic land projects for a range of clients. She writes frequently for Estates Gazette, Planning Magazine and Property Week. Claire is a member of the City of London Law Society Planning and Environment Sub-Committee and is ranked as a ‘Recommended Lawyer’ in The Legal 500 and recognised as a ‘Leading Individual’ in Chambers & Partners.
Jon Westerman, Edgars
Jon joined Edgars as an associate director, before being promoted to director in 2017. He has significant experience in both the public and private sectors and worked both in planning departments at local authorities in Oxfordshire region and in private practice. He has been instrumental in securing planning permission for the developments underpinning the masterplan at the former RAF Bicester, including a hotel and 50,862 sqm of commercial floor space and securing planning permission for the Mullin Automotive Museum on the edge of the Great Tew Estate.
Philippa Jackson, 39 Essex Chambers
Philippa Jackson specialises in planning, environmental, energy and aviation law, and related areas. She is recommended in the directories as a leading junior in planning, environmental and aviation law and has been consistently ranked as one of the top planning juniors by Planning Magazine for many years.
The Background
Angela Rayner’s promised the biggest housing boom in a century. By ensuring shovels can be put in the ground more quickly and projects are freed from unnecessary bureaucracy, these measures will help deliver a building boom that will deliver a major boost to the economy worth billions of pounds, and create tens of thousands more jobs, but what does all this actually mean for the industry and what do people need to know?
Essentially, the focus is very. much on growth, delivery of projects and speeding up the delivery process. The emphasis is on modern economic development. The greenbelt changes give increased opportunity for development. Greybelt refers to parcels of land within the greenbelt, a new concept but seeks to open up opportunities for development. The other big change is the ‘golden rule’, the need to deliver affordable housing.
The planning bill aims to give councils the ability to set fees locally rather than nationally. Previously those fees weren’t ringfenced for planning, but that will now be the case. There are, however, a series of unanswered questions around how the new system will work.
There is also some work around water and environmental changes. A written statement on planning – economic growth, finding reasons to say yes. Major bodies may be removed as statutory consultees, and ensuring that consultees provide a response within their given time period.
Should Heritage Play A Part in the Planning Changes?
In terms of heritage – existing buildings haven’t really been considered. The panel felt that this could be a missed opportunity, there’s a huge amount of potential there, that could be brought into the housing stock, but that’s not been considered. It’s perhaps easier to develop existing buildings rather than getting new build through. The concept of the special setting will be preserved. There’s been no change to how heritage is treated. So level of harm still has to be considered when applying for planning.
In terms of workload for planners and lawyers, there will potentially be more planning applications as a result of the changes. Therefore just advising will lead to more work to be done. The system isn’t getting any easier, but it’s still complex. The latest policies have a focus on new build and greenbelt, but not on other areas, so there will almost certainly be issues around interpretation.
Working with Consultants
The team look at the opportunities and benefits of working with a planning consultant. The government’s focus is to speed up the process – planning depts are massively under resourced, so working with a consultant can help to smooth the process, as they should understand how your planning authority works. Jon notes he’s a real advocate for what local authorities do and the hard work they put into getting planning right.
The role of an advisor is to work with a client and authority to deliver a positive outcome for both sides. Ideally the aim should be to clearly demonstrate that any harm from a project is far outweighed by the benefits. Jon refers to Bicester motion as a good example of this – it was a challenging project. Enthusing a planning officer about a project is a good starting point. It also helps if the officer is experienced, but sadly staff turnover in planning depts is a known challenge. The challenge for govt is not just attracting but retaining people with experience.
Challenging Planning Decisions
In terms of challenging planning decisions, the team note that it’s something that does happen but isn’t easy to achieve. Planning depts are very alive to the challenging of decisions on their merits rather than according to valid reasons for challenging decisions. Any opportunities for overturning decisions will inevitably be quite limited in scope.
Thanks to all our speakers as always, and do tune into the next episode of ConstructionCast which will almost certainly be coming along soon!