It’s obvious now why the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill was named as it was. Having now received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 it is formally the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, or Lura to its friends.
I consulted the oracle which is The Bump website:
“Origin: German
Meaning: Alluring temptress
Lura is a feminine name of German origin that means “alluring temptress.” A variation of the traditional name Lorelei, Lura is a modern alternative with the same fascinating history and connotations. In legends, Lorelei was the name of a maiden who would lure fishermen to their deaths by singing her haunting song. Today, Lorelai is the name of a rock face along the Rhine River in Germany. With connotations of otherworldly beauty and natural wonder, Lura is an excellent option for your little one.”
Very clever Mr Gove, very clever.
(Although there is also the LURA, which is the Leeds University Rocketry Association. And there is a Portuguese singer, Lura. Planning law is going to get even more confusing).
As is usual, it will take a bit of time for the Act to be printed. In the meantime you either have to trawl through the various sets of amendments on the Parliament website, take your chances with the Government’s press statement or (more usefully) delve into the various summaries already on social media. I would recommend for instance:
- Lichfields’ summary of the planning-related sections
- Nicola Gooch’s 26 October 2023 blog post
I also very much recommend, as a wider update, the latest Planning Law (With Chickens) podcast episode, recorded that day by my Town colleagues, Victoria McKeegan and Nikita Sellers. The chat covers Lura but also much else of what has been happening in our world over the last few months.
Because it isn’t all about the Act, the operation of which is dependent on much further secondary legislation to come. The Act will only change the system’s hardware. A software update, in the form of an updated version of the NPPF following the December 2022 consultation draft, is expected any day now.
In the meantime, Michael Gove’s letter to local planning authorities dated 8 September 2023 is worth a read if you haven’t seen it. I’m not sure it was initially online. For instance:
“First and foremost, this Government is unashamedly supportive of development and regeneration in and around existing town and city centres. This is how we will get homes built where it makes sense, support growth, and enable people to get on the property ladder.
And making it easier to progress such developments is front of mind as we finalise the update to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), following our consultation which attracted more than 26,000 responses. In that context, and ahead of the publication of the refreshed NPPF in the autumn, I wanted to make clear my expectation that:
• development should proceed on sites that are adopted in a local plan with full input from the local community unless there are strong reasons why it cannot;
• councils should be open and pragmatic in agreeing changes to developments where conditions mean that the original plan may no longer be viable, rather than losing the development wholesale or seeing development mothballed; and
• better use should be made of small pockets of brownfield land by being more permissive, so more homes can be built more quickly, where and how it makes sense, giving more confidence and certainty to SME builders.”
[That viability statement is particularly topical].
“My intention is for the regulations, policy and guidance necessary for the preparation of the first new-style local plans to be in place by Autumn 2024. In the new system, planning authorities will need to prepare, consult on and adopt plans within a 30-month timeframe – and follow the same process for each subsequent update of their plans, including examination by PINS.
In the interim, we want local authorities to continue adopting ambitious local plans, which is why we set out fair transitional arrangements in our current consultation on implementing the plan-making reforms. As part of these arrangements, we confirmed our intent that the last day to submit a plan under the current system will be 30 June 2025. I want to reiterate that local authorities without an up-to-date local plan are likely to be subject to the presumption in favour of sustainable development when facing applications.”
30 months.. There’s that haunting song again.
Simon Ricketts, 28 October 2023
Personal views, et cetera
Lorelei by William Turner
SIMONICITY 