All Change in Government, All Change in Planning? | Webinar

Join 39 Essex Chambers for a wide ranging discussion to consider the implications of the new Labour government for the planning system.
The Labour Party’s manifesto ‘Change’ included many promises of substantive change to the planning and infrastructure regime, including:
1. To ‘forge ahead with new road, railways, reservoirs and other nationally significant infrastructure’, the manifesto promised new national policy statements and related updating to national planning policy.
2. To ‘build 1.5 million homes’, the manifesto promised an ‘immediate’ update to the NPPF ‘including restoring mandatory housing targets’, changes to the presumption in favour of sustainable development, a ‘more strategic approach to greenbelt land designation and release’, and reform of CPO, amongst others.
3. To all this whilst achieving exemplary development as ‘the norm’ and delivering ‘solutions to unlock the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality without weakening environmental protections’.
Beyond the manifesto’s express promises, were implied promises of swift action discernible in criticism of specific Conservative policies, such as the ‘The Conservatives’ ban on new onshore wind’.
The new Prime Minister has told us to expect his government to hit the ground running. The new Chancellor, in her first speech, on 8 July 2024, said ‘nowhere is decisive reform needed more urgently than in the case of our planning system’ and made seven announcements, doubling down on the manifesto, including:
1. The ‘immediate lifting’ of ‘the de facto ban on onshore wind’ - see Policy statement on onshore wind, 8 July 2024 (stating that NPPF footnotes 57 and 58 no longer apply).
2. A consultation on a reformed NPPF by the end of the month.
They say a week is a long time in politics. Quite how much the new government will have done in its first fortnight remains to be seen, but come what may there will be plenty to discuss.
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