The Government’s new 30-month local plan process is intended to do something the planning system has struggled with for years: get local plans produced more quickly, more consistently and with less procedural drift. The guidance says local planning authorities should prepare a single local plan and adopt it within 30 months, under the new plan-making system in England.  On paper, that sounds straightforward. In practice, the key issue is not whether 30 months is a sensible am

If you’re promoting or delivering housing in parts of the South East, you will eventually run into SANG. It isn’t “nice to have” open space. It is a legally-driven mitigation tool used to ensure residential development does not increase recreational pressure on protected habitats, most commonly Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), under the Habitats Regulations and the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) process. The key issue is that th

The planning guarantee is a government commitment to ensure that planning applications are decided within a clear and reasonable timeframe. It is intended to provide certainty for applicants and prevent unnecessary delays in the planning system. In England, the planning guarantee generally means that planning applications should not take longer than 26 weeks to be determined, unless a longer period is agreed with the applicant. Frequently Asked Questions How Does the Planning

A Section 73 planning application allows a developer to vary or remove conditions attached to an existing planning permission without submitting a completely new application. It is commonly used when minor changes are needed to an approved development while keeping the original permission in place. Under Section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, a local planning authority can grant a new permission with revised conditions. The original planning permission remains

“Grey Belt” has quickly become a shorthand for easier Green Belt development. That’s not quite right. Grey Belt is not a separate designation outside the Green Belt. It is a way of identifying parts of the Green Belt that are less important in planning terms, because they do not strongly contribute to certain Green Belt purposes. The policy intent is to help authorities and decision-makers focus scrutiny on the areas that actually do the heavy lifting rather than treating all