Drop in local plan submissions as PINS prepares for increased workload

Despite this year-on-year fall, PINS is expecting an increase in its examination workload as a deadline for the production of local plans approaches in early 2017.

Figures up to 30 June 2016 (6-page /138 KB PDF) showed that 136 core strategies and strategic plans (local plans) had been submitted to PINS for examination since the National Planning Policy Framework came into force at the end of March 2012.

The figures showed that 34 local plans were submitted for examination between April 2014 and March 2015, but that only 14 were submitted in the corresponding months of the 2015/16 financial year. The average number of local plans submitted each year since the NPPF was introduced was around 32.

The figures also revealed a 16% drop in the number of local plans found sound by planning inspectors, from 37 local plans in 2014/15 to 31 in 2015/16.

Then housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis said last summer that the communities secretary would intervene "in cases where no local plan has been produced by early 2017". Lewis repeated this pledge in the ministerial foreword to PINS' annual report and accounts for 2015/16 (104-page / 3.1 MB PDF). PINS said in the report that an increased workload of local plan examinations was expected through 2016/17.

The latest statistics from PINS show that 13 core strategies and strategic plans were submitted for examination in the first quarter of the new financial year, with 9 of these being submitted in June 2016 alone.  A further eight core strategies and strategic plans were published for published for public consultation in this time.

The new housing and planning minister Gavin Barwell was asked last month whether the government remains committed to intervention in the local planning process where councils do not produce plans by early next year.

A letter from Clive Betts (2-page / 909 KB PDF), the chairman of the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee asked Barwell: "Do you intend to follow your predecessor's intention to intervene in the production of local plans where local authorities do not have them in place by March 2017? If so, how many local authorities do you anticipate might need such intervention, and what form might it take?"

Betts' letter also asked whether a statutory duty would be imposed on councils to maintain an up to date local plan and what measures would be put in place to simplify the local plan-making process and to ensure councils co-operate effectively when preparing their local plans.

Planning expert Jamie Lockerbie of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The problem of failing to adopt an up-to-date local plan in a timely manner was expressly acknowledged in the Local Plans Expert Group report which was published earlier this year."

"Intervention by the communities secretary is one solution but adequately resourcing an ‘intervention team’ could in itself pose a challenge," said Lockerbie. "One of the reasons for the delay in many local planning authorities adopting an up-to-date local plan is the time consuming and resource-heavy nature of the work involved. Currently, numerous evidence base documents and reports need to produced, the draft plan needs to go through at least a couple, if not more, of iterations and the strategic environmental assessment process needs to be properly undertaken. If the communities secretary is proposing to intervene in numerous plans he will need to ensure he has a large and well-resourced team available to undertake the work required."