36 commercial property
New laws: new development opportunities
The telegenic governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has assured us that ’renewed recovery is taking hold’, writes John Newton of Lamport Bassitt
The Bank has constructed a platform for recovery based on record low interest rates being pegged to unemployment figures, and loosening capital requirements for the largest lenders.
The Coalition Government has now put in place its main legislative ingredients for recovery, and these have a strong focus on both commercial and residential property development. The next two or three years of the cycle therefore offer a great window of opportunity for landowners, developers and occupiers alike. Rarely in recent times have such political sentiments, economic necessity and legal opportunities all coincided.
The National Planning Policy Framework was one of the first, and most far-reaching, examples
of political encouragement for recovery at the grass-roots level. Most significantly, from March 2013, planning authorities must give due weight to their local plans only to the extent they are consistent with the NPPF with its well-known presumption in favour of sustainable development. So inconsistent or out-of-date local plans are now a tremendous area of opportunity and challenge for developers and landowners, particularly where housing allocations are concerned.
The grant of planning permission was often delayed by cumbersome negotiations over the detailed terms of s106 Agreements which had to be settled on a case-by-case basis, and then in turn approved by banks if they were financing the development. The causes of such delay in many such cases has been
removed by the introduction of Community Infrastructure Levy, which is a fixed charge imposed by reference to the floor area of the development. It is fairer, transparent, and should speed up the grant of planning permission in many cases where previously section 106 Agreements would have been required. The levy is being introduced by local authorities gradually; for example the levy came into effect in Southampton on September 1, 2013.
Once planning permission was granted, developers were then best advised to wait for three months in case objectors sought to have the planning permission quashed by judicial review. That waiting period has now been halved to six weeks for
planning permissions granted after July 1, 2013.
Even with planning permission granted, development of land could nevertheless be prevented or delayed for years by objectors claiming the land had been used as “a village green“. Since April 25, 2013, the publication of a planning application or the publication of a draft local plan proposing the development of land will generally preclude anyone applying to register that land as a village green.
It can be seen that in multiple areas of the planning and development process, many long-standing and often frustrating obstacles to the developer and landowner have been reduced or removed altogether. It is up to such developers and landowners, and their advisers, to seize these new opportunities. If the up-and-down cycle of commercial and residential development tells us anything, it is that he who hesitates is lost.
Details: John Newton 023-8083-7742
John.newton@
lamportbassitt.co.uk
Science park brings high-tech facilities to small businesses
Southampton Science Park has recently completed the refurbishment of 1 Venture Road, now re-branded as The Science Centre, reaffirming its continued investment in innovation in the Solent region. The Centre has been designed with small scientific businesses in mind, and will provide flexible ’pay-as-you-go’ lab space to early-stage technology companies with a requirement to accommodate small numbers of technical staff in their own self- contained facilities.
The development of a facility of this nature has been a long-term goal for the Science Park, which has been aware for some time that there is little in the local area to support small scientific businesses. Prior to the Science Park’s investment, companies had been forced to look towards Guildford or Oxford for suitable
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facilities, or to take far more lab space than required in order to stay in the area. The purchase of 1 Venture Road by the University of Southampton Science Park in 2012 was the first step towards achieving its goal. Work began immediately, planning the refurbishment of what was previously a laboratory facility for a
single company, and transforming it into individual labs suitable for the needs of multiple small businesses.
Peter Birkett, CEO of Southampton Science Park, commented: “We believe SMEs are the key to successful and sustainable economic growth, and that establishing a secure support
network for them is fundamental to the recovery of the economy. The opening of the Science Centre enables us to provide a nurturing environment for small scientific businesses, where growth is encouraged, not stifled by constraints like long-term leases, or lack of flexibility. We are extremely proud of the new facility, and look forward to welcoming enterprising small businesses in the very near future.“
The refurbishment is now complete, with the building separated into 15 labs of varying sizes on the ground floor, and six offices, a meeting room and kitchen facilities on the first floor. Utility supplies have been isolated to individual labs and offices to ensure fair usage charges, and existing equipment has been either replaced, or fully serviced to ensure optimum functionality.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – OCTOBER 2013
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