H1.10: Planning unplugged

A special report in association with Hill Dickinson, The Co-operative Bank, Morris & Spottiswood and Emplacement

Advisors at Drivers Jonas Deloitte outline the consequences of the coalition's planning measures for developers across residential, energy, transport and infrastructure.

Residential - The new coalition government has pledged to place planning power into local hands for all new development, but no other sector has received quite the same amount of attention as house building.

The key change promised pre election has already been actioned - the abolition of top down housing supply requirements from regional planning bodies. The simple concept now is that individual local authorities should set their own numbers.

But our research shows limited appetite for this right now - only six of the North West's 38 authorities are intending to take this route, and all these are urban authorities such as St Helens, Wigan and Tameside rather than shires.

If this self-determination spreads to become 'anti development' - perhaps as a result of local pressure - then it looks like little will be done by central government to overrule that. This could bring obvious difficulties for those wishing to promote new housing in the more desirable parts of the region.

How this fits with a need to get the house building industry moving again is an issue that isn't going to go away. Alexa Brain, assistant director

Energy - With the death of Regional Planning, the 10% renewables policy also went. With the majority of North West local authorities without an adopted Core Strategy, most now do not have formal, adopted targets for incorporating renewable energy sources into schemes. It is in the hands of non statutory policy instead.

However, the king of contention - nuclear power - is likely to remain unchanged by the coalition's current announcements as it is still bound by national policy. With four of the ten new stations destined for the North West by 2018 this will be a relief to the region's energy sector. Michele Steel, director

Transport and infrastructure - Local authorities' Core Strategies, are to remain in place and form the strengthened basis for planning decisions, so local councils are well advised to continue with their infrastructure planning studies.

For as long as Eric Pickles leaves Core Strategies unchanged - and at this stage we have few clues on this - then councils would be wise to proceed with more infrastructure studies as the most likely means of guaranteeing success of new development in the planning process.

Big ticket schemes like Manchester's Metrolink and the Leeds-Liverpool rail upgrade remain priorities, as will the potential widening of the M62/M6 or second Mersey crossing but a number of other key projects to the region await their fate in the Government's spending review in October.

The much supported Infrastructure Planning Commission will be replaced by the Major Infrastructure Unit The difference between the two may be subtle such as now the MIU has elected decision makers, but important, although both have committed to the same targets of cutting down the inquiry process from years to months. Suzy Blackledge, assistant director

What next for developers? The government has moved swiftly to make some radical changes to the planning system, without spending months debating the issues.

Localism is clearly at the heart of the new government's system of reform and is going to have to prove more than just a buzzword if schemes are going to get through this sticky period.

In the meantime, planners are being told that the evidence developed for the Regional Strategies is still deemed to mean something, but there is no actual policy framework to go with them. Until we see a test case, it's hard to see how things will turn out.

Developers definitely need to spend more time and energy working with local residents, building support, but new housing development in the North West is almost certainly going to be affected. Michele Steel