infrastructure

Local Planning System

Planning permissions and local plans are not isolated decisions or policies – they are part of a local planning system which is joined up to national policies…

Planning permissions and local plans are not isolated decisions or policies - they are part of a local planning system which is joined up to national policies...

In more detail

The local planning system is based on the idea that alongside the rights of landowners, the wider community has an interest in and rights to do with how land and buildings are developed.

These rights and interests arise from:

the effect that development has on immediate neighbours
the wider effects of development, for example on the capacity of local infrastructure and on the local taxpayers who maintain it
the idea of neighbourhood community: that all of us who live in an area have a legitimate interest in its value as a place in which to live and work.

Balance

The planning system aims to balance these rights and interests - personal and social - with a view to deciding what development should go ahead. The system is concerned with spatial planning: not simply how individual plots of land and buildings should be used and developed; but also how they relate to each other to create places. This includes transport links and other links between them and the shared systems for serving them; and the relationships between where people live and where they will work. By balancing the rights of people with an interest in a place, the planning system is our shared way of shaping places.

Democratic and Coherent

It is a democratic system - the authorities in charge of the planning system are the councils we elect.

The video above is of the Planning Committee meeting in Birmingham which took place on 23 June 2016.

The system is participative as well as representative: we are able to take part through consultation on planning decisions and as participants in making plans. But the system is based on law and on objective policy which aims to ensure that all parties are treated fairly. Local plans are subject to a National Planning Policy Framework which is based on law agreed by Parliament. When decisions about planning permission are made, they have to fit with national and local policy. When a new local plan is made, it must fit with existing national and local policy - in the form of the local development framework).

Limiting and Enabling

The planning system says what can or cannot be developed. It does not say what will be developed - that is up to the owners of the land. Local plans set limits and enable development within those limits. They are not prescriptive. The planning system allows for some development to go ahead that is outside the terms of what local plans enable. In these cases, however, the developer may have to pay some contribution to the community to compensate.

Key Facts:

The local planning system balances the righst and interests of land-owners with the wider community. It is democractic because the authorities in charge of it are the councils we elect. But planning decisions must fit in with local and national planning policy. New local plans must fit in with national policy and the existing local framework. Plans set limits on development, but they enable development within those limits. Plans and planning decisions are enabling rather than prescriptive: they say what may happen; not what will happen.

Page Links from here

The Plain English Guide to the Local Planning System is published as a PDF by government

The CPRE website has a useful section Planning Explained and the Planning Help site

In this toolkit, have a look at:

National Planning Policy Framework

Local Development Framework

OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-07-26 19:49:34

by: admin

status: f published

Sustainable development means development which looks after the ability of a place to go on growing and sustaining itself in its own way in the future…

Sustainable development means development which looks after the ability of a place to go on growing and sustaining itself in its own way in the future...

In more detail

Infrastructure means the things that go between things that enable them to work. Physical infrastructure includes things like roads, railways, water and power lines and generation, sewerage, docks, bridges and airports.

Physical infrastructure is important in local spatial planning in three main ways:

some infrastructure projects are of national importance and are taken out of the local plan framework - things like where new nuclear power stations go, High Speed Rail Links and motorways are considered by the National Infrastructure Commission rather than the local council.
locally important infrastructure (local main roads and rail links for example) may be the subject of policy in local planning frameworks which is agreed by the council and within with local plans - including community-led neighbourhood plans - must fit.
developers who propose to invest in an area, but whose development relies on existing infrastructure (roads etc) can be made to contribute to local infrastructure through the Community Infrastructure Levy and through planning obligations.

Social and environmental infrastructure

Just as there is physical, or economic, infrastucture, so there are social and environmental systems which support local wellbeing. Environmental infrastructure might include things like 'green corridors' which join up local green spaces and allow greater biodoversity. Social infrastructure includes tangible things like schools and hospitals. It also includes the local community network: social connections between people and the hubs etc which generate and enable those links.

Key Facts:

Infrastructure is the physical, environmental and social systems which go between sites, projects and individual proposals to enable them to work. Social infrastructure includes the local community network as well as more visible things like schools and hospitals.

Page Links from here

In this toolkit see:

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

Local Planning System

Developers

Transport Planning

Planning Obligations

OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

created: 2016-07-22 13:20:47

by: admin

status: f published

Planning Obligations

Where does ‘section 106 money’ come from… and could the same rules that enable it also provide land for affordable housing or green open space in your neighbourhood?

Where does 'section 106 money' come from... and could the same rules that enable it also provide land for affordable housing or green open space in your neighbourhood?

In more detail

Planning obligations are legally-binding commitments that the owners of land make to the local council in order to win planning permission for development that would otherwise not be acceptable. They are frequently called section 106 agreements (section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 which sets out the basis for them in law). The purpose of section 106 agreements is to mitigate the impact of development of the site.

What form do they take

Planning obligations may: restrict the way the land can be developed or used; require the developer to take certain actions in relation to the land or to use the land in a specified way; or require the developer to pay money or in-kind (by transferring the ownership of land etc.) to the authority. A developer may also enter into planning obligations under the terms of section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 which provides for payments to councils in respect of increased spending on highways as a result of new development.

Developer Contributions

Together with Community Infrastructure Levy, planning obligations under section 106 and section 278 are sometimes also called ‘developer contributions’. Unlike the Community Infrastructure Levy, which is charged across classes of development according to a tariff set by the local council, planning obligations entered into through section 106 agreements and section 278 agreements are site-specific and the subject of individual assessment and agreement.

Sometimes the developer contribution arising from a smaller development is dealt with by a unilateral undertaking by the developer (made under the terms of section 106) rather than a full section 106 agreement.

When are they used and what for and how communities benefit

The tests for a section 106 agreement are that it must be:

be necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms
relate directly to the development
be fair and reasonable in scale and kind given the details of the development.

Councils commonly use planning obligations to make housing developers provide a proportion of affordable housing or financial contributions towards the cost of infrastructure or affordable housing. But, so long as the tests above are met, agreements can be used flexibly to mitigate the effects of development. This could be, for example, by providing new community facilities or open space to replace those lost or damaged by development; by providing funding for a school or for public transport improvements; or carrying out town centre improvements.

It would be misleading to think that community groups can ‘bid in’ for section 106 funding, but if your neighbourhood is affected by development, it is right that your neighbourhood benefits from any planning obligations that are entered into. Community groups can help the council to develop appropriate policies for an area which will form the basis of deciding whether any planning obligations are needed and help to indicate the form they might take. Section 106 agreements are put out for consultation in the same way and to the same timescale as planning applications.

Key Facts:

Planning obligations – commonly known as section 106 agreements – are payments and duties agreed by developers to councils to make development acceptable. Unlike Community Infarstructure Levy (CIL), which is charged at a flat rate, planning obligations are specific to a particular development proposal. Together with CIL, planning obligations are called 'developer contributions'. Community groups can influence the policies which determine how 'section 106 money' is spent.

Page Links from here

DCLG's Planning Practice Guidance on Planning Obligations

and in this toolkit:

Community Infrastructure Levy

Developers

OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

created: 2016-07-01 22:35:13

by: admin

status: f published