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Local Government Reorganisation (February 2025) The Government announced in February 2025 that they are going to reorganise Local Government across 21 areas of England – abolishing both County and District/ Borough councils and creating Unitary Councils. Surrey then promptly happened. However, the Government made a little boo-boo on this. They asked the Councils that are being proposed to close to run the consultation on whether they should close… the equivalent of asking turkey’s to vote for Christmas. Unsurprisingly, some of the individual consultations were then done in such a way that they created an opportunity for legal challenge and the whole process was halted. Unfortunately, this has already had negative effects with recruitment freezes and very good officers leaving to pursue careers with a longer shelf-life.
Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (December 2025…only 18 months late) The Government also promised a root- and-branch reform of planning that would require an act of Parliament (aka the Planning and Infrastructure Bill) that eventually became law on 18 December 2025. This act put in place a great variety of measures: NSIPs that facilitate easy decision making for (crucially) infrastructure of national importance, and Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs) that reintroduce spatial planning forcing multiple Councils to play nicely and deliver the goods. It also, crucially, introduced the National Scheme of Delegation. On top of this, it introduced EDPs to offset nature impact and made it easier, on paper, for renewable energy companies to get permission. Then we indulged in our favourite blood sport… Early 2026 was largely dedicated to our favourite blood sport as a nation – changing the Prime Minister – which of course caused a hiatus and uncertainty and that was last thing we needed. But, things are definitely looking up. Angie is back in the job she asked for in 2024 and Matthew Pennycook is now the longest serving Housing Minister since God was in short trousers. The new-new NPPF MK2 This version of the NPPF took the December 2024 (MK1) and supercharged it. It beefed up the Local Plan Making (PM) policies and separated them out very neatly form the Decision Making (DM) policies. • Plan Making – this is where it gets interesting. Councils are instructed to get on and make plans that meet the housing and
employment growth as established, and failure to do so will get you into hot water. There are only a few Council Leaders who have disagreed with Minister Pennycook and very bravely announced they are withdrawing their Plan. They tend to do it in the morning and by the afternoon they have had a letter from Minister Pennycook informing them that if they aren’t going to do their job, he will send someone in to do it for them. • Development Management – This is where it grows real teeth. Policy DM1 puts consultation with the locals about your plans in the NPPF – the same as the policies that require you to do so for highways and flooding reports. If you don’t comply it becomes a reason for refusal. However, like with other reports, if you have done it, you have complied with the NPPF and it becomes a material ground on which you can rely to gain permission. Policy DM3 requires applicants to demonstrate how their consultation shaped the ultimate application (and on this point we have now seen a number of applications refused at inspection where this didn’t happen). This policy also says that where statutory consultees don’t respond in time, your friendly planning officer could make the decision without their input (very handy that one!) “Work harder you dogs” – Your First Home (or first dog box September 2026) Stalin allegedly told his Cabinet to “Work harder you dogs” and for the past two and a bit years, we have had the Government cracking the whip and saying we in the development industry should work harder – especially in house building. But, without buyers, there is no point in building houses. Rachel Reeves and the Treasury for the first two years of this Government refused to help first-time buyers as they clung to the dogma that Government aid to help house buyers only inflates the market. But when there is no market to inflate, anything will help, so it was with great excitement that I heard that Andy and Angie launched Your First Home which will help first-time buyers with a deposit to get a mortgage and buy their home. Let’s peek around the corner and see what’s ahead The National Scheme of Delegation comes into force on 31 October. This will take a lot of planning applications out of the hands of the Planning Committees and leave them with officers. What does that really mean? Well, if you are Mrs Miggins with her single- storey side extension or Mr Jones with a small commercial application, or even the
SME with the planning application for fewer than nine units, you will see a change. Lucky you won’t go near the Planning Committee. As for the rest, you may occasionally see a Reserved Matters application approved under the delegated powers, but the reality is most of the applications won’t see a change.
Clipping the wings of the Planning Committee We have seen it so many times. The Planning Committee sits there, ignores the advice and recommendations of the professionals and votes perfectly good applications down because of spurious external reasons (like “the locals won’t vote for us again”). The Planning and Infrastructure act requires the Planning Committee to not have more than 13 members from 1 November 2026. Councils are in the process of amending their constitutions to reflect this change (some having a hard time of it and one in particular has effectively abdicated their decision making powers entirely to officers). Let us not forget that the Act also
introduces certified training for Planning Committee members and the certificates will have to be displayed on the Council website that they have completed the training and passed it. Only problem is, we don’t know what the syllabus is going to be, who is going to do the training, or how it will be tested. SDSs still to come The SDSs areas are now established, their remits have been set and work will be staring in earnest soon. Watch out for these and make sure you make your representations. A Mayor coming to a region near you Vast parts of the country are already under directly elected Mayors – admittedly, predominantly in the North and Midlands. You need to take into consideration that Andy Burnham was a very successful Mayor of a region and he believes in regional Mayors. LGR may go, but Mayoralties will come. And finally… General Election? Burnham was in Brown’s team when he bottled the 2007 General Election and went on to lose the 2010. He may very well be eager to get his own mandate and a five- year run. Don’t be surprised if you are at the polling stations late this month.
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