When Should Strategic Authority Mayors Be Able To Reverse Local Authority Planning Decisions?

The question goes both ways: if a local planning authority is minded to refuse a planning application, when should the mayor of a strategic authority be allowed to call in the application and potentially approve it? Conversely, if a local planning authority is minded to approve a planning application, when should a mayor be allowed to direct refusal?

The principle of giving mayors of strategic authorities the power to intervene in local decision making is not new – originally proposed in the December 2024 English Devolution White Paper and given statutory effect by way of section 33 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 – and the operation in practice of the Mayor of London Order 2008 is of course very familiar in practice to those of us who work on projects within London.

However, that is not to say that today’s MHCLG consultation paper Planning powers for mayors in England August 2026) doesn’t raise some significant issues.

Perhaps the biggest change from what was envisaged in the white paper is that mayors’ powers to intervene are no longer proposed to be dependent on their authorities first having a spatial development strategy in place. It is said in the consultation paper that before SDS adoption a mayor would only be able to:

–              direct refusal of PSI applications where the development proposed would be detrimental to the area’s growth, and would be contrary to good strategic planning in the area

–              call in PSI applications if the development proposed would have a significant impact on the growth of the area, and there are sound planning reasons for intervention.

I do worry about this change, for three reasons.

First, it reduces the incentive for the authority to have an SDS in place.

Secondly, a mayor who is intent on standing in the way of a particular development or type of development – or indeed intent on supporting a scheme which is otherwise heading for a local refusal – will not find it particularly difficult to frame his or her intervention in terms which fall within these criteria. They don’t in practice provide much of a safeguard at all.

Thirdly, how can participants predict with any confidence whether the mayor might intervene (for or against), and if so on what grounds, without an SDS in place? What inappropriate negotiating lever might this give whoever is in that mayoral position?

Generally, how robust is this emerging system against the risk that those in positions of power may not have the proper positive planning of their area as their priority as against other political objectives?

Aside from that question, my other main thought at the moment is whether any concerns should arise from how what is set out in the consultation paper reflects very closely how the system operates in London:

  • Applications of potential strategic importance (“PSI applications” in the jargon) are defined by way of various detailed categories (e.g. proposals for at least 150 dwellings or at least 15,000 m2 of commercial floorspace)
  • The local planning authority would consult with the mayor when the PSI application is made (familiar to us in London as the stage 1 referral) and the mayor would give their views, indicating whether they have no wish for further involvement
  • Unless the mayor has indicated that he or she does not wish for further involvement,  the authority would notify the mayor of their ”minded to grant or refuse” decision (familiar to us in London as the stage 2 referral), giving the mayor 14 days to decide whether to intervene either by directing refusal or by calling the application in for the mayor’s own determination.
  • If the mayor calls in the application, he or she determines the application either by holding a hearing or (not previously the case in London) by written representations.
  • The Secretary of State can still call in the application at any time and if the mayor has refused the application, the applicant can appeal in the usual way.

It’s somewhat worrying that planning in London is being used as a blueprint for elsewhere in the country. It’s certainly no silver bullet. In London these procedures add significant time and complexity to application processes. The applicant will want to sound out the mayor’s team at an early stage on any major scheme, so pre-app discussions become more complicated. Negotiations with the mayor’s team often become as important as negotiations with the LPA’s team, particularly (in London) on issues such as affordable housing quantum and viability. Dilemmas arise on occasion: whether to follow LPA officers’ steer or that of the mayor’s team, because priorities will sometimes differ. In practice the stage 2 referral stage takes far longer than two weeks because the mayor’s team will ensure that the application package is not referred until all material issues have been ironed out, including having the section 106 agreement having reached an advanced stage with issues relevant to the mayor usually agreed. Particularly given the detail of the current London Plan, detailed negotiations will also be taking place on any number of detailed issues which if unresolved may lead to a risk of a direction of refusal. If an application is called in by the mayor, there may well be a lengthy further period where negotiations with the mayor’s team are needed to “improve” elements of the scheme or section 106 agreement package.

How this this complex dynamic going to play out in different mayoral strategic authorities? Isn’t the honest answer that no-one knows? It is partly going to come down to the political priorities of individual mayors and partly down to whether mayoral teams will be sufficiently well resourced and managed to deal with referred PSI applications in a timely, predictable and consistent basis.

So, given that this system is being introduced to encourage new homes and economic growth rather than to provide an additional brake or check on decision making, how sure are we that the additional administrative steps involved will not introduce more cost and uncertainty to the system than is outweighed by the opportunity on occasion for a mayor to step in and approve a scheme which the LPA was going to refuse? And has the system been stress tested as against the risk of (elected) bad actors?

What might be mitigations against these risks?

  • Perhaps going back to the concept of having these far-reaching powers only unlocked once a spatial development strategy is in place.
  • Perhaps increasing the PSI application thresholds, at least to begin with?
  • Perhaps closing loopholes that allow referral stage timescales to be elongated?

The consultation process runs until 5 October 2026.

Simon Ricketts, 24 August 2026

Personal views, et cetera

Mark-Up Of Final Version of NPPF vs Draft

Here’s one we prepared earlier: https://www.townlegal.com/wp-content/uploads/Redline-Compare-Draft-NPPF-December-2025-and-NPPF-August-2026.pdf .

By “we” I mean my colleague Archie Hunter, for which thanks (although any errors are mine – please do just use this as an indicative guide).

It’s interesting to see the editing process that has been underway at MHCLG, taking us from the December 2025 draft (see my 19 December 2025 blog post Framework Good Work) to today’s final version (17  August 2026).

Given that the policies in the new document take immediate effect in terms of decision-making, unfortunately we do all need to get our heads around its implications, in detail, without delay. Amongst all the tightening of language throughout,  there are various substantive changes. The two biggest I spotted are probably:

  • In a change from the approach floated in the consultation draft, no standardised viability inputs have been included. The circumstances in which a viability assessment is appropriate at application stage are stated in amended terms in policy DM5.
  • Residential and mixed-use development within reasonable walking distance of a well-connected railway station – the definition of “well-connected” has been extended to catch those within a top 80 rather than 60 travel to work area within England. “Reasonable walking distance” is defined as “around 800 metres, or around 10 minutes’ walk time if topography, route availability and quality or physical barriers would prevent or discourage walking from up to 800 metres away.”  Reduction in minimum density requirement to 35 dwellings per hectare from the previously proposed 40 dwellings per hectare. “Higher densities – of at least 45 dwellings per hectare – should be achieved where the service frequency is at least twice that of the minimum required for a well-connected station” unless inappropriate or not possible. These “minimum densities […] should be exceeded where possible, especially in areas of high connectivity, to optimise the efficient use of land. The Connectivity Tool (Connectivity Tool – GOV.UK) should be used alongside other relevant quantitative or qualitative evidence in assessing the connectivity of particular locations proposed for development.”

More broadly there is some watering down of the requirement in policy L3 that development proposals for residential and mixed-use development should contribute to an increase in the density of the area in which they are situated: “where there is a clear justification that this is either inappropriate or not possible (for example, where the prevailing density is already very high, the nature of the accommodation required precludes higher densities, or where it would conflict with other policies in this Framework).”

MHCLG’s own summary of top 10 changes made from the draft are set out in its policy paper Creating a clear, rules-based planning system (also published today):

Aside from scrolling down our mark-up, it is also useful to look at MHCLG’s response to consultation document, also published today, which sets out the background to the approach taken in relation to the various elements of the draft that were consulted upon. There are useful indications in the document as to what further we can expect, e.g.

Viability

“…the government has decided to not take forward a technical annex to include standardised inputs in viability assessment.

While we understand the need for a consistent framework for evaluating development proposals and certainty in the viability assessment process, we consider that further engagement is needed with local planning authorities, developers, development surveyors and other key stakeholders. This will ensure that any changes are thoroughly tested prior to implementation. Viability Planning Practice Guidance will continue to provide guidance on standardised inputs – and policy DM5 is clear that viability assessment should be carried out in accordance with this guidance. The government appreciates the feedback received and will use it to inform a wider update of the Planning Practice Guidance, to be published as soon as possible. 

In relation to review mechanisms, the government proposes that these should be considered through the local plan process under policy PM12. Policy DM5(6) has

therefore been removed. Further guidance on the use of review mechanisms will also be published in due course.” [my emboldening]

Section 73/106A

“Respondents generally highlighted the need to improve the efficiency, clarity and consistency of the process for modifying planning obligations under section 106A, while maintaining confidence that agreed affordable housing and infrastructure contributions will be delivered. Relatedly, some respondents suggested that further guidance on the interpretation and application of s106A legislation, or standard templates to support the modification process, could be developed. 

Many respondents raised concern about the submission of section 73 applications to obtain planning permission with a lower level of affordable housing or other obligations. Respondents emphasised that any proposed reductions to affordable housing or other contributions should be robustly evidenced. 

The government has considered these responses and acknowledges the need for a more detailed review of the statutory framework for amending planning obligations. The government will use the feedback received through this consultation to inform that review and set out further details in due course.”

Conditions

“Working with the Planning Inspectorate, the government will develop a suite of national model conditions and begin publishing these before the end of the year. In developing these, the government will work closely with the sector and will provide guidance to support their use in practice.”

Standardising section 106 agreements for medium sized development

“Revisions have been made to policy DM6(4) to align with the approach for planning conditions so that, where national model planning obligations are relevant to a

development, they should be used unless there are strong reasons to depart from them. The government is taking forward a programme of work with the Planning Advisory Service to support and streamline the process of section 106 agreements, with an initial focus on medium sites. The government will consult on draft standard template planning agreements for medium sites, which are designed to reduce delays and resource burdens on local planning authorities and SME housebuilders. “

Neighbourhood plans

“In response to consultation feedback, the government will also update Planning Practice Guidance to provide greater clarity on neighbourhood plan preparation, including site allocations and the consideration of local housing need. This will set clear expectations for collaborative working between local planning authorities and neighbourhood planning groups, and the use of local evidence to inform housing requirements and delivery.”

Specific housing needs

“…the government will publish updated guidance in due course to assist local authorities in assessing the housing needs of different groups, including older people and disabled people.”

Affordable housing commuted sums

“…the government recognises that challenges remain, particularly for SME developers where there is limited registered provider appetite to acquire small numbers of Section 106 affordable homes. To help address this, the government will publish guidance to improve clarity, consistency and confidence in the use of commuted sums”.

“This will include consideration of how guidance can support effective deployment of contributions in practice, alongside work on standardised planning agreements, including whether standardised clauses could support the use of cash-in-lieu payments.”

Housing Delivery Tests

MHCLG today finally published the 2024 and 2025 HDT results.

The consultation response document says this:

“As part of wider efforts to simplify and streamline Housing Delivery Test calculations, the government has also implemented changes to the way the Housing Delivery Test has been calculated, informed by sector feedback outside of this consultation. This includes the removal of unmet need adjustments to Local Housing Need calculations. Unmet need is often inconsistently identified across local plans, making it complex and challenging to apply adjustments consistently, and resulting in some areas being measured against targets which did not accurately reflect need in their area. This change means that local authorities will be measured against either their plan requirement (where any agreed unmet need being taken or transferred to neighbouring authorities is already reflected within these figures), or Local Housing Need. The government considers this provides a more accurate and transparent measure of an area’s housing requirement in the Housing Delivery Test. This change has been applied to the 2024 and 2025 Housing Delivery Test results.

Further, in recognition that it can take time for new housing targets to be reflected in housing delivery figures, the government has introduced a transitional arrangement for the new standard method (published in December 2024) to apply to the Housing Delivery Test. This transitional arrangement means the previous version of the standard method will continue to be used to calculate Local Housing Need until the 2026/27 measurement year.”

Permission in Principle

“The government has considered these responses and is minded to proceed with extending Permission in Principle to medium-sized development, subject to further engagement with the sector. The government agrees that this will enable applicants, particularly SME builders, to test the acceptability of development on more sites without the full cost of a planning application. However, it recognises concerns about making decisions on the principle of development for this scale of development in the absence of mitigations, and will explore the issue further and ensure that there are adequate safeguards before making changes to secondary legislation.”

Lastly, MHCLG also published today (17 August 2026) the government’s response to its consultation on reforms to the statutory consultee system.

Enough for now? I think so.

Simon Ricketts, 17 August 2026

Personal views, et cetera

Talkin’ Bout A Devolution

In a week where Andy Burnham committed to go further than the government’s current programme in terms of devolution, by way of the 31 July 2026 Rewiring the State cabinet statement, it was ironic to see a couple of news pieces that perhaps reveal politicians’ day to day attitude to local government:

“Badenoch suggested the convicted criminal would not be allowed to stand as an MP, but that his ambition to be a councillor was legitimate. “I’m not giving him a national platform, he is standing to be a councillor in Somerset … it is a local platform looking at parking, sorting out bins.”

(Badenoch defends decision to allow man jailed for antisemitism to stand as councillor, The Guardian, 5 August 2026)

““The government is devolving new licensing powers to the mayor [of London] to help support pubs and nightlife. Soho did not become world famous by taking last orders early, switching the lights off at 10 o’clock.

“The prime minister encourages local leaders to work with the industry so that pubs can continue to thrive.”

The government is due to grant new powers to the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, allowing him to “call in” local council decisions he opposes.

Khan said of the proposals on X: “You can’t run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset.”

A spokesperson for the mayor previously said he was against “restrictive and anti-growth policies” and said he hoped to use new powers to be granted to him by the government to stop councils from overreaching.”

(‘It is British life’: No 10 vows to stop councils trying to limit standing in pubs, The Guardian, 6 August 2026)

The cabinet paper is intriguing and heralds some fairly immediate changes. Watch for the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 28 October 2026 and ahead of that any further hints at the labour party conference at the end of next month.

There is of course already a hugely ambitious English devolution process underway, pursuant to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, the main elements of which I initially summarised in my 11 July 2025 blog post A Bluffer’s Guide To The English Devolution And Community Empowerment Bill. The National Audit Office published a report on 1 July 2026 with accompanying press release MHCLG advances devolution plans with expansion of Strategic Authorities and local funding powers confirming that good progress was being made, albeit recognising that “there is a clear tension between departments’ responsibilities and the ambition of the English Devolution White Paper that central government should end the top-down micromanagement of decisions and approaches by local leaders and replace it with a principle of locally accountable autonomy. This tension will need to be resolved, and local accountability arrangements substantially strengthened and tested, before the devolution of funding and accountability can be considered to be working effectively to support improved outcomes for local people “.

So, what is new for England in the latest cabinet statement? Will it address that tension? There’s a lot that could well make a big difference – particularly greater retention of business rates for strategic and local authorities and a slice of local income tax for mayoral authorities. I can now see more clearly how strategic authorities’ spatial development strategies will truly be (as Catriona Riddell has always advocated) the key strategic investment framework for each area.

  • “…empowering mayors to offer a high-quality locally tailored technical or vocational route from age 16, underpinned by control of the budget for 16- to 19-year-olds.”
  • “In respect of transport, we will support mayors to take public control of buses more rapidly and implement fully integrated ticketing systems, alongside our work with local leaders to support active travel options. We will give local leaders more control over commuter rail services, with the most established mayors working in much deeper partnership with Great British Railways. As we introduce new accountability arrangements, we will also remove the need for government approval of locally funded transport schemes for places with integrated settlements, except those that interact with the national network. We will immediately raise the approval threshold to £500 million and work with mayors to replace the concept of “retained schemes” with Local Transport Infrastructure Partnerships. We will also reform our approach to working in partnership with the most strategically significant or complex local projects, drawing on the experience of delivering the Elizabeth Line.”
  • “Mayors will be equipped to support the building of council homes, including through greater devolution of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme and investment to upgrade to warmer homes, and we will strengthen the framework for public development corporations to drive local housing and infrastructure development.”
  • “We will support mayors to foster local innovation ecosystems, devolving a substantially increased share of later-stage innovation funding to local leaders so they can back opportunities with the greatest potential for local growth.”
  • “We will also empower mayors to ensure their regions are thriving places to live as well as work by giving local people – including young people – greater control of how cultural and sporting investment is decided in their regions. This could include funding currently controlled by Arts Council England and Sport England, whilst ensuring individual cultural funding decisions are taken outside of political interference.”
  • “These reforms will be augmented by supporting mayors to establish Good Growth Funds across the country, backed by national Public Financial Institutions and supported by the Local Government Pension Scheme as a key local investor, to assist mayors in investing for the long term in their local economies. We will also support local places to reindustrialise by building on frontier sector and cluster strengths.”
  • “Through devolution, we will ensure services work together as a single coherent system built around the priorities of people and places. We will therefore give areas more local democratic control over their public services, from health to policing to education, including through the establishment of deputy mayor roles with responsibility for key public services. To enable this, we will align key public service boundaries. This will include new local police units aligning with local authorities, and regional police forces, fire and rescue services and Integrated Care Boards aligning with the boundaries of strategic authorities by the end of the Parliament. Where there are strong financial, strategic or operational reasons for larger organisations, this alignment may be to the boundaries of multiple, rather than just one, strategic authority. We will also enable greater alignment and pooling of funding for preventative services by devolving funding, where possible, allowing strategic authorities and constituent local authorities to invest in joint support, as long as national standards are being met.”
  • “We have … agreed to overhaul the way regional government is funded, starting by replacing grants from central government with a share of local income tax for every mayor beginning in 2028, such that where a region grows its tax base, it benefits from the increased receipts. This will sit alongside greater retention of the revenue from business rates for local councils and strategic authorities. The long-term certainty of funding via taxation will provide more flexibility and enable greater investment to fund interventions that will deliver a return. We will consider how these growth incentives can be balanced with the need for fairness between places, recognising that there will be different starting points across the country. We will also give all strategic authorities the ability to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy, with local leaders able to set out plans for how revenues will be invested by March 2028.“
  • “We also discussed the large regional disparities between current levels of public investment per head in different parts of the country. Alongside our programme of fiscal devolution, we will therefore rebalance public investment, including considering the balance of subsidy and other finance mechanisms, to ensure we are backing growth opportunities in all parts of the country. This will be supported by considering how areas could benefit from increased land values from housing and infrastructure development, strengthening their ability and incentives to invest.”
  • “The government wants all areas that are ready to have a mayor as soon as possible, as long as there is strong local support. We will therefore invite all areas without strategic authorities to confirm their preference as to whether the strategic authority for their area should be mayoral or not. Where areas are not ready to adopt a mayor, the government will work with them to set up non-mayoral foundation strategic authorities with an enhanced set of powers, including the option to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy. In line with the existing designation criteria, we have also conferred established mayoral strategic authority status to four further areas: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, East Midlands, West of England, and York and North Yorkshire.”
  • “There will be a stronger role for the Local Audit Office, and we will discuss with the National Audit Office how it can complement this. The outcomes framework for mayoral strategic authorities will also be streamlined to ensure that the government and the public can hold mayors accountable for good growth and addressing inequalities in their area. This will be supported by a strengthened focus on timely and accurate place-based data from the Office for National Statistics and other bodies that will support outcomes-based decision making in places. We will also ensure that there is a clear role for Members of Parliament in local accountability, working with mayors and local councillors.”
  • “…the government will take forward a programme of reform to support the financial sustainability of local authorities. This will include retention of more of the business rates raised locally instead of receiving grants from central government, and ongoing and future reforms to the highest cost services: adult and children’s social care, homelessness, and special educational needs and disabilities.”
  • “We agreed to replace the current model of consultation by default with new and modern forms of public participation. This includes considering where performative statutory duties to consult can be revoked and how we can more actively bring the public into the policy-making process instead.”
  • “Over the coming weeks and months, we will confirm our plans for the design of the Overnight Visitor Levy, activate mayoral intervention powers in the planning system, devolve decisions on Transport and Works Act Orders, and streamline the number of targets that mayors have to report on in relation to their integrated settlements.”

On timing:

  • “This autumn, alongside the Budget and fiscal devolution roadmap that will set out our overall approach to revenue assignment and rates retention, we will publish a white paper detailing our plans for the full set of reforms and a clear timetable for their implementation. This will include plans for legislation, the alignment of public service geographies, and the devolution of new powers and functions. The timetable for implementation will be informed by close work with mayors to consider how we can best build the necessary local delivery capacity and capability.
  • “Next year, fiscal devolution will begin with mayors retaining a share of business rates from April 2027 and securing powers to introduce the Overnight Visitor Levy. We will also establish a new wave of strategic authorities, with new mayors elected in Cumbria, and in Cheshire and Warrington, next May. We will use the upcoming Spending Review to confirm the detailed arrangements for retained income tax, with receipts retained locally from April 2028. And, in spring 2028, a further wave of new mayors will be elected”.

Viva la devolution.

Simon Ricketts 7 August 2026

Personal views et cetera

JR Risk

There was the usual rush of case hand-downs ahead of the end of the court term last week. Some of them caused me to reflect on this thing we talk about with clients all the time: JR risk. Even an unsuccessful judicial review of a planning permission can cause huge delays and problems for the developer (and don’t some objectors, often protected against any significant costs exposure even if they are unsuccessful, know it?) and if one or more of your grounds actually lands in your favour, back the decision goes for re-determination, possibly against a different political or economic background: bonanza…

I was also thinking about the government’s 16 July 2026 consultation paper Judicial Review Reforms Beyond Nationally Significant Infrastructure. Following on from its reforms to the judicial review process in relation to nationally significant infrastructure projects (see my 31 May 2026 blog post Keeping Up: JR Changes, Deadlines, the government is now considering a series of proposals that might be introduced more broadly to developments consented under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and Transport and Works Act 1992. These include:

  • removing the paper permission stage and for removing the right of appeal for cases which are deemed totally without merit at the oral permission hearing – whether for all planning cases or just for major infrastructure projects and other strategically important developments;
  • designating all claims relating to ‘major infrastructure projects’ and other ‘strategically important developments’ as “Significant Planning Court Claims” so that target timescales for dealing with the case apply and so as to ensure that each case is reviewed by the Planning Liaison Judge to ensure it is allocated to a judge with an appropriate level of expertise;
  • encouraging the use of case management conferences – whether for all planning cases or just for major infrastructure projects and other strategically important developments;
  • applying more broadly the new target timescales that will apply to nationally significant infrastructure project claims from 1 October 2026, namely: shortened deadlines for the service of the pre-permission documents from seven days to three; target timescale for having the oral permission hearing three weeks from the claimant’s deadline for filing a reply to the acknowledgment of service; shortened deadline for filing and serving the detailed grounds of defence from 35 to 28 days.
  • extending the target timescales for NSIP appeals in the Court of Appeal to ‘major infrastructure projects’ and other ‘strategically important developments’, namely (1) for permission to appeal: determination to be given four weeks from the application for permission to appeal and (2) for the hearing of a substantive appeal: four months from the application for permission to appeal.

Consultation responses are invited by 27 August 2026.

I can see that much of this is sensible tightening of processes and timescales – indeed it is exactly what we need with the actual planning application process but that is another story. Will it serve to dissuade meritless claims or materially reduce “JR risk”? I’m not so sure.

So what can we do, as planning lawyers and planners, to reduce JR risk on any potential project? It is so difficult. The uncomfortable reality is that the system now has almost countless legal trip hazards, given the numerous overlapping legislative regimes at play. Of course we can try to make the planning application “legally bullet-proof”, by way of (now the norm on larger projects) a legal audit of the draft application package; we can seek to make sure that there are no procedural slip-ups on the part of the local planning authority; we can review the planning committee report (even in draft, the High Court has recently confirmed: see my 12 July 2026 blog post Draft Planning Committee Reports: Sharing Is Caring) and seek to rectify before the decision any errors that we see. But there is always the residual risk that something has slipped through, and for sure the claimant will be looking to identify as many grounds as are seen to have any real mileage, because they only need to win on one ground and in litigation (particularly public law litigation) there are very few legal areas of absolute certainty. Some clients may indeed be driven to take out an insurance policy against the financial impacts of a judicial review, which has its place although inevitably expensive and not a panacea.

Without commentary on the specific legal rights and wrongs, these were some of the recent cases that caught my eye:

Guardians of Whitewebbs Park CIC v London Borough of Enfield (Sir Tim Kerr sitting as a judge of the High Court, 27 July 2026)

This was the quashing of planning permission for the proposed redevelopment of a former golf course in the green belt to provide Tottenham Hotspur’s women’s and girls’ football training academy together with associated development. The land is owned by Enfield Council which had entered into an agreement for lease with the council, which had then in due course granted planning permission. The permission was challenged by claimant on six grounds, one of which was abandoned before the full hearing of the case. Whilst the judge rejected grounds that alleged that the officer’s report had misinterpreted or misapplied a local plan policy in relation to heritage assets, that the report had not properly considered the scheme’s impacts on the openness of the green belt and that there had been apparent bias on the part of the council, the judge allowed the claim on the basis that (1) there was a breach of section 100D of the Local Government Act 1972 given that two background papers had not been published alongside the officer’s report that would have showed a disagreement between expert ecologists about whether the required biodiversity net gain (BNG) could be achieved and that (2) the planning committee had been materially misled by officers in relation to concerns about whether the required BNG could be achieved.

It is interesting to note that the council was defending the claim until shortly before the June 2026 hearing but, following the change of political control of the council the previous month, it informed the court that it would no longer defend the case, leaving Spurs to contest the claim.

The planning committee resolved to approve the application on 11 February 2025 and whilst the claimant did request reconsideration of that decision, this was not any of the grounds on which the judicial review was eventually brought. Only after the permission was eventually issued on 22 July 2025 was a “lengthy and detailed pre-action protocol letter from the claimant’s solicitors” sent on 2 August 2025 – by which time it was of course too late for the council or applicant to do anything about the grounds pleaded.

R (Staunch Campaign Limited) v North Northamptonshire Council (Sir Peter Lane, 30 July 2026)

This was an unsuccessful challenge by a local campaign group to planning permission granted for a large commercial development. The claimant relied on five grounds of challenge, all based on alleged breaches of the Conservation of Habitats Regulations 2017 in the way in which the council had determined the application.

R (Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association) v Secretary of State (Dingemans LLJ and Lieven J, 31 July 2026

This was the unsuccessful challenge to the government’s decision to grant planning permission for the proposed new Chinese Embassy at Royal Mint Court, just to the east of the Tower of London. Again there were five grounds of challenge  on a variety of grounds: unlawful approach to the enforcement of planning conditions and obligations (given the identity of the People’s Republic of China as the applicant); unlawful failure to disclose a Security Statement (summarising a risk assessment that had been commissioned by the PRC) and a Blast Assessment (commissioned by the local planning authority); non-compliance with Article 7 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) England Order 2015 (on the basis that applications were redacted so as not to show all internal room layouts proposed), and unlawful failure to identify and assess human rights.

We also had the publicity given to the apparent end to another east London planning law saga, the Holborn Studios litigation, ten years after the first planning permission was granted (later quashed in 2017 following a judicial review brought by Holborn Studios) for redevelopment of a building then occupied by Holborn Studios. A second planning permission was granted in 2019 and then again quashed in 2020 following a judicial review again brought by the same claimant. Planning permission was then granted for a third time, by a planning inspector on appeal, in 2024 and was quashed by the High Court in 2025. Landmark Chambers has announced Court of Appeal allows appeal in Holborn Studios litigation although in fact unusually the appeal was allowed by way of a consent order dated 17 July agreed between the parties and endorsed by the court, following Holborn Studios having been placed in administration. Ten years…!

It would be interesting to reflect on whether the government’s latest proposals to reform judicial review would have enabled any of these disputes to have been resolved at an earlier stage (I doubt it) and indeed what else might be effective. For instance, in some cases surely there may be a role for what I suggested in my 12 July 2026 blog post:

“The data in relation to any large scheme can be complex and nuanced. And if there is a mistake, a potential claimant for judicial review currently (ridiculously) has the luxury of being able to stay quiet, deliberately, until the permission is issued, perhaps months later after the section 106 agreement has been completed, before then popping up with his or her grounds of challenge once it is too late for the council or applicant to do anything about them (the obvious solution would be for the High Court’s pre-action protocol in relation to judicial review in the Planning Court to set out an expectation that a potential claimant should usually send its pre-action letter promptly once it ascertains that grounds for potential challenge have first arisen rather than being able to wait until the permission has issued but I’ve said that too many times to no effect).”

There I’ve said it again.

Simon Ricketts, 1 August 2026

Personal views, et cetera

We’re Getting There?

This government’s manifesto commitment to build 1.5m homes over this Parliament in England becomes more implausible by the day. 

Publication finally, by last week before the Parliamentary summer recess, of the final version of a significantly re-structured, more directional NPPF as per the 16 December 2025 draft was meant to be part of that push – setting out the approach to be taken in new style local plans and spatial development strategies (to be in place by this Parliament) and putting in place sharpened pro-development presumptions in favour of planning permission in specified circumstances. 

However, nothing came down the track despite much last minute speculation. 

It was all not happening as I was heading off on holiday, by train as it happens. 

OK we will have a new prime minister on Monday. But why should that have caused any delay? Why was the current version not published, if necessary with a health warning that it would be reviewed further in due course? Why was it not possible to achieve Burnham sign-off last week?

Because, now there are two possibilities: (1) Andy Burnham and his new ministerial line-up read it and publish it in September in its intended form (in which case we have lost another two months for zilch) or (2) they set about reshaping it, although in what direction is a mystery given that there is no hint of any change on direction which would impact on the document itself as opposed to routes to delivery of, for instance, affordable housing (in which case surely we are not looking at September but more likely December, once the redrafting has been done, read-outs taken, particular sounding boards sounded etc). 

There was the usual end of term splurge of other announcements but no NPPF. And in London we of course had the publication of the draft London Plan for which surely there will be trouble down the line.

If this were my “out of office” email, in my absence… 

I would finally note that Parliament returns from summer recess on 1 September, but then there is the further recess for the party conferences between 15 September and 12 October. Christmas recess starts on 17 December. The draft NPPF was published on 16 December 2025. My prediction is that the final version will be on its first birthday, although please do prove me wrong MHCLG (or whatever your acronym may be by then, given the likelihood of deckchair rearrangements in the meantime). 

Happy holidays.

Simon Ricketts, 19 July 2026

Personal views, et cetera

Draft Planning Committee Reports: Sharing Is Caring

This is an issue which comes up all the time in practice. The appellant is keen to have sight of a draft of the officer’s proposed report to planning committee in relation to its application but the officer is nervous whether to do so, particularly where the matter is contentious, in case to do so would found a potential ground of challenge for an objector on grounds of breach of natural justice.

Ironically, the more contentious the proposal, the more anxious the applicant’s team will be to see the report in draft before it is issued. In my experience, this is not to influence the judgments reached in the draft report (no officer would accept that), but rather to ensure that there are no material inaccuracies and no misstatements of the relevant legal and policy tests, any of which if uncorrected could lead to a successful judicial review of any planning permission subsequently issued. The trip hazards for councils (and therefore indirectly for applicants) are innumerable and growing. The data in relation to any large scheme can be complex and nuanced. And if there is a mistake, a potential claimant for judicial review currently (ridiculously) has the luxury of being able to stay quiet, deliberately, until the permission is issued, perhaps months later after the section 106 agreement has been completed, before then popping up with his or her grounds of challenge once it is too late for the council or applicant to do anything about them (the obvious solution would be for the High Court’s pre-action protocol in relation to judicial review in the Planning Court to set out an expectation that a potential claimant should usually send its pre-action letter promptly once it ascertains that grounds for potential challenge have first arisen rather than being able to wait until the permission has issued but I’ve said that too many times to no effect).

Of course, if the report to committee is published, as it has to be, at least a week before the meeting, there is nothing to prevent any party, including the applicant, from identifying errors and seeking for them to be remedied by publication of an addendum report, or by oral comments at the meeting itself, but surely it’s a big enough ask to expect committee members to read and understand the main report itself in time for the meeting, without them having to address the subsequent inevitable flow of addendum reports and miscellaneous late representations (each of which legally has to be taken into account). It’s surely become a fiction that any but the most diligent of committee members has indeed actually read and understood all of the available material? The main report should surely be the document of record.

It’s helpful then that Deputy High Court Judge Tim Smith has now handed down judgment in R (Davis) v Isle of Wight Council (Tim Smith sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, 8 July 2026), where the ground of challenge by the claimant (an objector to a proposed renewable energy scheme) to a local planning authority’s grant of permission was that the sharing with the applicant by the authority’s officer of her draft report, giving the applicant the exclusive opportunity to influence the final version, was a breach of natural justice that caused prejudice to the claimant.

On the facts he found that it wasn’t but more interestingly he ventured to set out some factors to note “for determining when it will be fair or unfair to share a draft report to Committee selectively”:

“106. As I see it, relevant considerations include at least the following:

  1. Firstly, and most importantly, it should be non-negotiable that the officer responsible for the report has exercised some independent judgement in relation to any input received. Plainly, an officer who allows the applicant to draft the report to Committee and then accepts it without review would be abdicating their professional responsibility entirely. One would hope that no case before the court ever asks for a ruling on behaviour as deficient as this. But it is much more likely that, as here, the officer is asked to consider comments made on a pre-existing draft report. Whatever the fact pattern, some active engagement with the suggestions must be demonstrated by the author. Mere passive or unthinking acceptance of the comments will not be sufficient;
  2. An officer’s exercise of discretion might be revealed in how he or she receives and acts upon comments. That may be clear on the face of the evidence, for example if suggestions have been made but have demonstrably been rejected. It may also be explained in a witness statement from the officer in question, applying the requisite degree of scrutiny over such ex post facto evidence (see Ermakov v Westminster City Council [1995] EWCA Civ 42 and R (United Trade Action Group) v Transport for London [2021] EWCA Civ 1197 (“UTAG”));
  3. At a more granular level, whether the officer’s view was arrived at unprompted by any comments may also be a relevant factor. To illustrate the shades of grey involved in such an exercise, in oral argument I posited with Counsel two hypothetical scenarios that are closely linked but different. In the first scenario the officer shares a draft report with the applicant, noting about one aspect of it “This is a relevant issue. I propose to tackle it like this. What do you think?”. In the second scenario the request from the officer is “This is a relevant issue. How do you think I should tackle it?”. I do not suggest that one approach is always permissible and the other not, but equally one can see that the former is preferable to the latter in evidencing unprompted thought on the part of the officer;
  4. The substance of the comments accepted will also be a relevant factor. Some may be inconsequential, some may be pivotal. Although not an exhaustive list, comments might be offered on the following aspects of a report (in ascending order of significance): (i) correcting typographical errors, (ii) correcting internal inconsistencies clear on the face of the report, (iii) correcting factual inaccuracies which are readily ascertainable from the application documents themselves, (iv) introducing additional material not found amongst the application documents but which is readily ascertainable from public sources – for example ONS data, (v) evaluative comments on particular issues (having regard also to how significant the issue is in the determination of the application), (vi) comments on how the officer conducts the planning balance required by section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and (vii) comments on the substantive recommendation being made to members of the Planning Committee; and
  5. The greater the degree of transparency around the assistance obtained, the less arguably unfair its use will be. Revealing that the draft report was shared for comments will go so far, but revealing the comments actually received and showing how many of them were accepted will be better.

107. Having considered the effect (both individually and cumulatively) of comments on a draft report, there is also – as Mr Parkinson rightly submitted – a need to take a step back and look at the fairness of the decision-making process as a whole. This will entail a number of additional considerations, a non-exhaustive list of which includes:

a) Whether third parties had their own opportunity to comment on the report prior to it being considered by the decision-maker, and

b) Whether third parties had additional opportunities to influence the decision-maker on the decision to be taken (for example, were they afforded the opportunity to make a presentation at the Planning Committee meeting?)”

To my mind, this is all good advice, largely representing current good practice in those situations where authorities are already willing to share drafts. I hope it will encourage those authorities which have to date been reluctant to take an equivalent approach. Their concern as to risk of legal challenge is not just misplaced but outweighed by the greater risk of legal challenge arising from uncorrected errors in the published report, and by the desirability of reducing the need for lengthy addendum reports and errata lists.

Final thought: we do need to think through how to ensure that grounds for legal challenge do not unnecessarily arise by way of mistakes in officers’ reports where decisions are taken by way of delegated authority, which is likely to be more frequently the case given the imminent changes covered in my 13 June 2026 blog post Delegation Nation – where there is not the required discipline of publishing the report a week ahead of the decision. This in my view increases the need for drafts to be checked by applicant teams, particularly in potentially contentious situations.

Simon Ricketts, 12 July 2026

Personal views, et cetera

Londonism

I’m not sure what Manchesterism is but Londonism surely isn’t working.

The 2024 Places for Everyone joint development plan for Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan leaves it to local authorities “through local plans” to set “targets for the provision of affordable housing for sale and rent as part of market-led developments based on evidence relating to need and viability”.

In contrast, the London Plan has traditionally set London-wide targets. The 2021 plan sets a strategic target of 50% (policy H4) and thresholds within H5 of 35% and 50% for different categories of land which, if not met, require viability appraisal and a late stage viability review process to secure affordable housing where possible due to future improvements in viability.

Five years on from the London Plan, the effect of those thresholds is surely obvious to all: see my 18 October 2025 blog post London Stalling .

The Government and the Mayor of London finally reacted to the obvious need for stimuli by way of an initial policy note on 23 October 2025 (see my blog post 4 Key Asks For The London Housebuilding Support Package Consultation).

The Mayor of London’s finalised package of support for housebuilding in the capital in the form of its 25 March 2026 London Plan Guidance is now subject to a judicial review brought by three London boroughs and “formally supported” by four others. After public consultation which led to amendments from what was initially proposed, the guidance was published, with support from the government,  on 25 March 2026 to respond “to the current challenging macro-economic circumstances and the changing national regulatory landscape which have led to a reduction in housebuilding in the capital” and to create “an additional time-limited emergency route which departs from policy H5 of the London Plan.”

I described the package, together with associated measures by government to provide relief from CIL in specific circumstances (for which we still await the relevant legislation – spell e-m-e-r-g-e-n-c-y for me again), in my 25 March 2026 blog post “The Government And The Mayor Now Expect Boroughs, Developers And Delivery Partners To Make Full Use Of These Measures To Approve And Build The Homes That Londoners Urgently Need”.

Following widespread concern as to whether the initially proposed measures would be sufficient (see my 13 December 2025 blog post The Proposed London Housing Emergency Measures Package Is Underwhelming), my impression is that the final package has been viewed much more positively by those with stalled residential projects in the capital, with, for instance, the removal of any requirement for a late stage (as opposed to an early stage) review mechanism from the time-limited planning route (which would have killed off much funding) and the extension of the qualifying timescale.

But of course, since the 25 March publication, we have had the 7 May local elections. Which are the boroughs behind the current judicial review? The three claimants are Tower Hamlets (majority control Aspire, previously no overall control), Hackney (majority control Green, previously Labour) and Lewisham (majority control Green, previously Labour). The four boroughs supporting the litigation are Lambeth (no overall control, albeit Green-led, previously Labour), Southwark (now Green/Liberal Democrat joint administration, previously Labour), Waltham Forest (majority control Green, previously Labour) and Haringey (minority control Green, previously Labour). The Mayor no longer has the allyship of these crucial authorities.

For a judicial review brought presumably with the intention of seeking to persuade the Mayor to stick to the 35% affordable housing fast-track threshold within policy H5 of the London Plan, it is interesting (possibly even remarkable) that so little has been revealed by the boroughs as to the detailed basis for the challenge. The existence of a pre-action protocol letter was first revealed by counsel at the Hillingdon local plan examination on 14 May but is still not in the public domain. All we have in the public domain as to the proceedings themselves are press statements from some of the relevant boroughs, the most detailed being Tower Hamlets’ statement on 24 June 2026, Councils launch legal challenge to stop Mayor of London cutting affordable housing.

“The legal challenge, backed by seven local authorities, relates to the Mayor of London’s attempt to reduce the current 35% affordable housing quota in the London Plan without using the proper statutory process for amending that plan. It also relates to the lack of a fair consultation before the policy change was made, including a lack of evidence justifying the blanket reduction to 20% affordable housing in all London boroughs.”

It is right of course that no decision maker should treat the London Plan Guidance as a formal part of the development plan or in any way formally amending London Plan policy H5 (although in any event the supporting text to policy H5 anticipated some flex , albeit upwards: “The 35 per cent threshold level will be monitored and reviewed in 2021 to determine whether this threshold should be increased. Any changes to the threshold will be consulted on as part of an updated Affordable Housing and Viability SPG or through a focused review of the London Plan“). But isn’t it obvious that it is for the decision-maker to consider the requirements of policy H5 in the context of current circumstances and that the London Plan Guidance represents the Mayor of London’s guidance as to the weight that he currently considers should be applied to those 2021 thresholds versus the time-limited measures in the guidance? If that isn’t already abundantly clear, the Mayor could and should make it so. In that context, albeit with appropriate deference given that the authorities have not chosen to share to place their detailed grounds in the public domain, what really is the point of this litigation? What decision maker in the real world is going to misunderstand the position?

The question arises as to what developers should now be doing if they had previously been intending to rely on the London Plan Guidance. Should their strategy change in the light of the litigation? In my view, no. The Guidance is lawful unless and until quashed and, in any event, as mentioned, any decision-maker will surely be careful not to treat the Guidance as part of the development plan as opposed to advice (which they may or may not consider sensible) as to the weight which the Mayor considers should in the current economic climate be given to policy H5.

The judicial review is certainly an early indication as to the potential treatment by at least seven boroughs of applications which are promoted on the basis of the 20% time-limited route, meaning that applicants will need to consider whether to press on with a view to potential call-in by the Mayor (for schemes comprising 50 dwellings or more) or appeal to the Secretary of State or whether to proceed by way of the viability-tested route, accepting the need for a late-stage review mechanism. But I can’t see how those boroughs’ combative approach might conceivably result in more affordable housing being delivered. If you disagree, please explain.

What is Andy going to make of all this I wonder?

Simon Ricketts, 5 July 2026

Personal views, et cetera

Wishful Thinking

“It’s time we should talk about it

There’s no secret kept in here

Forgive me for asking

Now wipe away your tears

And if I wish to stop it all

And if I wish to comfort the fall

It’s just wishful thinking”

(Wishful Thinking by China Crisis, 1983 – tune!)

MHCLG published two pieces of advice this week that might be construed as wishful (and therefore potentially misleading) thinking:

CIL

On 25 June the housing and planning minister wrote to all CIL charging authorities in England in relation to household developer exemptions:

“While the CIL Regulations provide clarity on the criteria that must be met and procedures that must be followed to secure relief or an exemption, the Government is aware of some historic cases where householders have failed to obtain an exemption due to procedural errors, which may have been inadvertent or unintentional. In some instances, despite meeting the qualifying criteria, householders may not have followed the procedures set out in the regulations, and may not have applied for or received a CIL exemption before commencing development. In others, an exemption may not have been obtained because retrospective planning permission was granted after further works had already begun on a development that had previously benefitted from an exemption or was otherwise not liable for CIL. The Government recognises that this has, in some cases, resulted in the imposition of significant CIL charges under the regulations.”

Too true! See for example my previous blog posts CIL The Merciless (19 January 2019), Trent Won, Cil Nil  (14 April 2021) and CIL: There Is No Equity About A Tax (10 July 2021).

So what is it proposing to do? First: “The Government is proposing to consult on a proposed package of targeted regulatory changes to make the operation of CIL clearer and more proportionate for householders and self-builders.“

So far so good (although if you asked me I would either entirely remove CIL liability for householder development or I would entirely remove the self-build exemption).

But, the second section of the letter is headed “historic cases” and has three strands:

  • “First, we strongly recommend all authorities to review their local CIL guidance and communication methods to ensure any household developers in their area are aware of the current exemptions and the necessary procedures to access them.” (What more or better communication does anyone suggest? Authorities do in my experience communicate the position both on their websites and via informatives on permissions – the problem is the complexity of the system itself for people without the sophisticated tax administration advice needed).
  • “Second, while charging authorities have a duty to collect CIL that is due, they continue to have a degree of discretion over the steps they take to do so and when. This includes considering what is reasonable and proportionate in any given case and the appropriate timescales for enforcement activity. It has been brought to the Government’s attention that escalated enforcement actions, including threats of forced sale or criminal proceedings, have led to serious consequences for some individuals and families. Such action, or similar, is not required by the regulations without regard to local authorities’ broader legal obligations – and the precise approach to CIL collection in any individual case will depend on the specific facts and circumstances. Exactly what enforcement steps to take, and when, to collect CIL in each case is a matter for the judgement of the authority concerned.”
  • “Third – where an authority feels this is justified – collecting authorities are able to make ex gratia payments of compensation from their general funds in exceptional CIL cases where payment has been made. Such payments would not constitute a waiver or refund of CIL, but rather a discretionary payment made from general funds, outside the CIL regime. These circumstances may arise where a charging authority considers that redress is appropriate because a householder developer would have been entitled to an exemption but, as a result of an administrative error, failed to claim it in accordance with the required procedure and now faces significant hardship as a consequence. There will be a range of considerations for local authorities in making such a decision, and in all cases, they should seek their own legal advice based on the facts and circumstances of individual cases.”

These last two suggestions in my view paint an over-optimistic picture to those who have incurred CIL liability through (often understandable) mistakes. Just look at the case law cited in the blog posts I mention, or indeed more recently R (Luck) v Bracknell Forest Borough Council (Lieven J, 14 November 2025) which reviews that previous case law:

“A number of points in respect of the CIL regime can be drawn from this caselaw:

a. CIL is akin to a tax, see Gardiner at [35];

b. The purpose of CIL is to provide funding for necessary development and to provide certainty to developers and the collecting authority as to when and how such liability arises, see s.205 PA and Heronslea at [120];

c. The statute and Regulations form a detailed statutory code which is self-contained and carefully constructed, see Gardiner at [48];

d. The imposition of CIL is not discretionary, see Shropshire at [44];

e. There is a strict procedure set out in Regulation 54B, which is obligatory, see Gardiner at [57];

f. Liability for CIL must be precisely and reliably calculated on an objective basis, see Gardiner at [63].”

“Given that the Court of Appeal have held that CIL is a form of taxation, it is relevant to consider the caselaw on the scope of HMRC’s powers to waive tax which would otherwise be liable. In R (Clamp) v HMRC [2022] 1 WLR 1067 Butcher J was considering a judicial review concerning HMRC’s powers to enter into assurances with taxpayers as to tax liability.”

Butcher J in Clamp: “HMRC cannot properly, however, make concessions that tax should not be payable, where this is done not to facilitate the overall task of tax collection, but because they consider that a tax which Parliament has clearly imposed should not as a matter of principle or policy, or by reasons of considerations of equity, be payable.”

Lieven J in Luck: “Quite apart from the detail of the Regulations, there are two overarching reasons why it would be surprising if there was a broad discretion to waive CIL. Firstly, as is set out by the High Court in Clamp, one would not normally expect a tax collecting authority to have an unfettered discretion to waive the tax that Parliament had set. That point is even stronger here than in Clamp, because the local authority under the CIL regime is not in the same position as HMRC with broad management powers and a fairly wide discretion to reach “arrangements” with the taxpayer. So, it is even less likely that the local authority would have such a broad discretion to waive liability.”

“Secondly, to construe Regulation 65(7) as a broad discretion to waive CIL seems inconsistent with the rest of the Regulations. It would be a wholly unfettered discretion, with no criteria set out, in marked contrast to Regulation 55. There is no parallel power in relation to demand notices, so if the liability notice can simply be withdrawn, the court would have to imply into the Regulations a power for the demand notice to be withdrawn or to cease to have effect. The Claimant argues that by withdrawing the liability notice the underlying liability itself ceases. However, for Regulation 65(7) to have this effect would be inconsistent with the Court of Appeal decision in Braithwaite, which held that the liability continues to exist even where the liability notice is withdrawn.”

Yes, the collecting authority does have some discretion as to the enforcement steps it will take. It also specifically has discretion as to whether to impose surcharges. But other than that it has to operate within the narrow tramlines of the legislation. For someone who has made a very expensive mistake which has caused them to lose the benefit of, say, the self-build exemption, the fact that the authority may (may, no guarantee at all) choose not to resort to prosecution or an injunction to enforce payment is of little consolation if the house is ever to be mortgaged or sold.

As for the suggestion of the authority making ex gratia payments where the householder has made the administrative error rather than the authority….really?? All that this is going to lead to is many detailed, often heart-wrenching, requests, often backed by increasingly assertive legal submissions, as to why in the particular circumstances an ex gratia payment should now be made. And it’s the hope that kills because surely the authority’s response, after spending time and resources as they “seek their own legal advice based on the facts and circumstances of individual cases” is going to be “no”?

Isn’t all this papering over the cracks rather than making proper repairs?

Air conditioning units

On the same day, 25 June 2026, MHCLG published a blog post, Air conditioning rules. It starts like this:

“There has been media coverage this week suggesting that air conditioning is banned in homes. This is incorrect.

Air conditioning can be installed in both existing and new homes.

In most cases, planning permission is not required to install it for a small home if it would not materially affect the appearance of the building from outside.

However, there is no blanket rule. People should speak with their local council to check the rules, and councils should take a common-sense approach.”

It ends like this:

“A government spokesperson said:

“Air conditioning units are not banned. They can be installed in both existing and new homes and we expect councils to take a common-sense approach to the rules around this, which are there to manage the interests of communities and the environment.”

So let’s assume I’m a member of the public and I’m thinking about installing an air conditioning unit. I assume that government spokesperson is not thinking of one of those internal units with a hose that waggles inefficiently out of the part-opened window? If it’s a split unit device with an external unit and internal unit, the external unit does not have the benefit of any permitted development rights unless it is in the form of an air source combined heating and cooling unit (for which there is a right subject to limitations and conditions in class G of Part 14). Otherwise the question is one for the local planning authority as to whether in its planning judgment a large white box on the exterior of the building materially affects its external appearance, which will always come down to various site-specific factors. Are you going to check with the authority first before you make your expensive purchase? In many locations, and in the absence of formal government advice (which that blog post is not),  I anticipate that officers would conclude that planning permission is required.

CIL and planning officers: I would welcome your respective thoughts on both of these announcements.

Simon Ricketts, 28 June 2026

Personal views, et cetera

Route 62A

It’s like Route 66 but with more roundabouts. 

My Town Legal colleague Charlie Austin recently wrote a piece in Estates Gazette, The beginning of the end for localism? (18 May 2026, behind paywall). He goes through various strands of MHCLG’s current programme, including expanded delegation of decision-making to officers (see my 13 June 2026 blog post Delegation Nation), new referral requirements to the Secretary of State and London Mayor (see my 5 April 2026 blog post Further Measures To Discourage LPA Refusals Of Large Housing Schemes…Activated) and the more prescriptive thrust of the draft revised NPPF.

To that list could be added MHCLG’s designation on 15 June 2026 pursuant to section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, of nine local planning authorities where applications for planning permission for major development may now be made direct to the Planning Inspectorate.

The list is:

• Cherwell

• Dacorum

• Epping Forest

• Hertsmere

• Malvern Hills

• Rossendale

• South Tyneside

• Staffordshire Moorlands

• Wychavon

All of which join Lewes, which was designated back on 8 May 2024.

This week’s designation notices all have the same text:

“On 4 December 2024 the Secretary of State laid before Parliament a document setting out the criteria for designation and de-designation under section 62B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (“the designation criteria”). Neither House of Parliament resolved that the designation criteria should not be approved within the 40-day period referred to in that section.

In applying the designation criteria, the Secretary of State has considered data for the two year period ending on 31 March 2025 and subsequent appeals decisions to 31 December 2025 on the quality of decision making by local planning authorities on applications for planning permission for major development. The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and by reference to the designation criteria mentioned above, considers that there are respects in which the local planning authority specified below is not adequately performing their function of determining applications for planning permission for major development under Part 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and therefore, it is appropriate to make the following designation:

[ ] Council in respect of applications for planning permission for major development. Duration of designation This designation has effect from 09:00 on 15 June 2026 and shall remain in force until revoked.”

MHCLG’s designation criteria guidance is here.

For the purposes of this week’s designation: “The threshold for designation on applications for both major and non-major development, above which a local planning authority is eligible for designation, is 10 per cent of an authority’s total number of decisions on applications made during the assessment period [the 12 months up to and including the most recent quarter for which data on planning application decisions are available at the time of designation] being overturned at appeal.”

Planning magazine provided the useful table below in their designation day news piece (Pennycook places nine councils in planning performance ‘special measures’ for poor quality decision-making, 15 June 2026 (behind paywall)):

What are the implications of designation?

The applications can now be made direct to the Planning Inspectorate are those for major development, namely:

  • for housing, development where 10 or more homes will be provided, or the site has an area of 0.5 hectares or more
  • the provision of a building or buildings where the floor space to be created by the development is 1,000 square metres or more; or
  • development carried out on a site having an area of 1 hectare or more.

We have a good picture both from the procedural requirements and guidance but also given previous designations (Fareham de-designated in March 2024, Chorley, St Albans and Uttlesford de-designated in June 2025 and Bristol de-designated in January 2026).

The Planning Inspectorate has procedural guidance for applicants, designated authorities and interested parties . In broad summary:

  • Applicants can secure pre-application advice from PINS at £134 per hour. PINS appoints a case officer who is then the main point of contact and requests necessary background documentation from the authority. The planning inspector reviews the pre-application submission (there is a form and a list of necessary documentation) and carries out a site visit, holds a meeting with the applicant and issues formal advice to the applicant. Pre-application community consultation by the applicant is strongly encouraged as well as “meaningful” consultation with statutory consultees.
  • The application can then be submitted (with at least ten working days’ advance notification given). The fee is the same as for submission to the local planning authority.
  • PINS carries out consultation with statutory consultees and the designated local planning authority, advertises the application in a local newspaper (how quaint), and publishes any consultation responses online.
  • The local planning authority must provide a substantive response to the consultation within 21 days, including matters it considers should be addressed by way of section 106 agreement or conditions and should “work constructively with the applicant to ensure any Section 106 agreement is completed within the required timescales”.
  • “When submitting an application to the Planning Inspectorate, applicants must ensure that it is ready for determination. A decision will be made on the application as submitted. There is no specific provision in the process for amendments or revision to the application once it has been submitted. Applicants should ensure that the relevant information is submitted with the application, as we will not accept any additional information once the application has been submitted, other than in exceptional circumstances.”
  • At the end of the consultation period, PINS will determine the procedure to be followed. “Planning applications relating to development of a significant scale, and which raise issues which cannot be clearly understood from the written submissions will require a hearing.”
  • “It is the responsibility of the applicant and the LPA to ensure that a completed agreement is in place so that it can be taken into account in reaching a decision. For applications dealt with by the written representations procedure, the completed agreement should be submitted within two weeks of the end of the representation period. Where there is a hearing the agreement should be submitted in advance of the hearing date.”
  • “The Planning Inspectorate will issue a formal decision notice incorporating a statement setting out the reasons for the decision. If the application is approved the decision will also list any conditions which are considered necessary.”
  • There is no provision to appeal the decision.
  • CIL processes work as if the decision were taken by the authority.
  • “Where planning permission has been granted under Section 62A the LPA continues to have the responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the permission, ensuring that it is carried out in accordance with the approved plans and any attached conditions. Applications for the approval of details required by condition must be submitted to the LPA. Applications for variation or removal of conditions can also be made to the LPA.”

What all this means in practice is that potential applicants have much to weigh up in deciding or not whether to make their application direct to PINS.

On the plus side, for a scheme that is straight-forward with little risk of subsequent refinements being required, there is more time certainty (and particularly in relation to negotiation and completion of any section 106 agreement), a straight-forward approach to the pre-application engagement and, if the sense is that the application may need to go to appeal anyway, it gets you before an inspector without that initial application stage.

On the minus side, many applicants may wish to maintain a constructive relationship with the particular local planning authority, and will be rightly concerned about the lack of any ability to revise applications or submit further material during the process, as well as the fact that there is just the one roll of the dice, with no subsequent right of appeal. For the local planning authority, the loss of planning application fees can of course have a significant impact.

If you would like to see some examples of applications made, timescales and the relevant documentation there are links here to all applications made in relation to Uttlesford before that authority was eventually de-designated.

Simon Ricketts, 20 June 2026

Personal views, et cetera

Delegation Nation

The new rules (for England) limiting which planning applications can be determined by local councillors come into force on 31 October 2026, a month later than previously intended.

The draft Regulations are accompanied by statutory guidance (1 June 2026) and a draft impact assessment which arrives at the following calculation:

““[Net present social value] (2025 prices, 2026 base year): £509.4 million (Low: £102.6 million and

High: £1,352.3 million)

Central direct monetised impacts (NPSV in 2025 prices, 2026 base year):

• Reduction in costs of holding capital related to determination times (to developers): £329.5 million

• Reduction in costs of holding capital related to appeals (to developers): £127.8 million

• Reduction in costs related to appeals (to developers): £46.0 million

• Reduction in costs related to appeals (to public sector): £6.1 million

• Familiarisation costs (to public sector): <£100,000”

Half a billion pounds is not to be sneezed at.

There is (of course) a comprehensive Lichfields blog setting out how the new system will work (Delegation default: power to the Chief Planner, 11 June 2026). Schedule 1 applications must always be delegated to officers. With Schedule 2 applications there is a presumption that applications will also be delegated, unless (1) unless the nominated officer and nominated member agree the application should be referred to a planning committee or sub-committee for determination and (2)  it meets at least one of the criteria in regulation 5(3), namely:

  • A: where the application raises an economic, social or environmental issue of significance to the local area; and/or
  • B: where the application raises a significant planning matter having regard to the development plan and any other material considerations.

For B, “the following circumstances are unlikely to raise a significant planning matter:

  • where the application for development broadly complies with a detailed site allocation and other relevant policies set out in a local or neighbourhood plan and national decision making policies set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. Significant planning matters may arise if new material considerations are raised by the application.
  • where a specific planning matter (e.g. highways or flood risk) was initially raised by a statutory consultee as a concern, but the development proposal has been modified to make it acceptable in the view of the statutory consultee (unless the nominated officer has compelling reasons to consider otherwise).”

Schedule 1 includes applications for householder development, minor commercial development, minor residential development (fewer than ten dwellings), most reserved matters, condition discharges, prior approvals, permissions in principle, NMAs and certificates of lawfulness.

There are a few changes in the make-up of the schedules since the draft proposals that I summarised in my 31 May 2025 blog post Small Changes , for example:

  • reserved matters applications in relation to phased outline planning permissions will only be in Schedule 2 if the outline permission scheme is for the provision of 500 or more dwellings or buildings with 50,000 sq m or more floorspace.
  • section 73 applications will now be in the same schedule as the application for the original permission.

Local authorities will need to adopt appropriate processes to get this right. This table in the Lichfields blog post gave me a familiar sinking feeling…

What can go wrong?

Well, as set out in the statutory guidance:

“For the avoidance of doubt, where local planning authorities do not comply with the Regulations from the date they come into force (31 October 2026) and their planning committees make decisions on applications which must be delegated officers [sic], those decisions may be subject to judicial review by anyone aggrieved by the decision. This may lead to the quashing of the decision.”

Let’s look at a couple of permutations:

  • Planning committee makes a decision which should have been delegated to an officer. If the decision is to approve, that gives rise to the potential for third parties to challenge the decision. If the decision is to refuse, what does the applicant do? If the authority does not agree to re-determine the application (at least before the decision is formally issued), yes it could judicially review the decision but its more effective remedy may simply be to appeal (and in so will have to grapple with the dilemma of potentially being in a position where it is submitting an appeal in relation to an unlawful refusal notice).
  • Officer makes a decision on a Schedule 2 application without having considered with the nominated member, in accordance with its published procedures, whether it should be determined by committee. First of all, to state the obvious, in many contentious cases there is going to be much pressure placed on the nominated officer and member (usually from objectors, sometimes potentially even from the applicant) for the application to go to committee. If there are grounds for asserting that the process has not been carried out lawfully, you can bet that they will be relied upon. Officers really will need to be robust and clear in their approach and to have the full support of members in order for these changes to work as envisaged and not to lead to unnecessary delays.

Last comment: I googled to find that previous blog post I did on these proposals. This is how reliable or not Google AI is, folks. Matt, if you wrote it I’m sure the blog would be more popular!

Simon Ricketts, 13 June 2026

Personal views, et cetera