Out-Law News 2 min. read

PAS advice note recommends viability studies to inform process for housing-led LDOs


The UK government-funded Planning Advisory Service (PAS) has issued an advice note providing guidance for local authorities on making local development orders (LDOs) to accelerate the delivery of residential development on brownfield sites.

The note (38-page / 1.1 MB PDF), produced with assistance from engineering firm AECOM and planning consultants Peter Brett Associates, recommends that councils commission or carry out detailed viability studies to help them fully to understand sites before committing the time and money required to put LDOs in place.

LDOs grant planning permission for specific development or specified classes of development within a defined area. They streamline the planning process by removing the need for developers to make a planning application for development authorised by the LDO.

The ability to make LDOs was introduced through the provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 which inserted sections 61A to 61D and Schedule 4A into the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The 2014 Envision Report for PAS noted that by the end of 2013 there were 65 LDOs in force across 41 local planning authority areas. Of those LDOs, 80% related to employment uses, but none allowed new build residential development.

In his Mansion House speech in June 2014, George Osborne announced "radical steps" whereby local authorities would be "required to put local development orders on over 90% of brownfield sites that are suitable for housing".

Whilst the idea of making LDOs compulsory has not been advanced further, in January 2015 the Department for Communities and Local Government invited bids from local authorities for funding to prepare LDOs for housing on brownfield land and PAS was asked to work with a number of local authorities with a view to each creating a pilot LDO for one or two identified brownfield sites which could deliver up to 100 housing units. This latest advice note from PAS draws on the experiences of councils across England that have taken part in the LDO pilot scheme and other councils with experience of the LDO process.

The note emphasises the importance of understanding the development viability of sites earmarked for the potential use of LDOs. It says evidence provided by external consultants could help councils understand why sites haven't been brought forward for development without LDOs being in place and ensure that an effective strategy is identified for their future development.

PAS also advises councils to appoint a project manager to drive the LDO process and to engage early on with statutory consultees, landowners, developers and members of the general public.

Planning expert Jo Miles of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "This advice from PAS underlines the need for local authorities to invest significant upfront resources in undertaking technical and viability studies to inform LDO proposals on brownfield sites. Put simply, there is little point in a local authority going to the time and expense of promoting and adopting a LDO for development which is undeliverable and which will never be taken up by developers."

"Making a successful LDO requires the local authority to put themselves in the shoes of developers and to resist imposing overly restrictive limitations or demands on development which would render the permitted development unviable," said Miles. "Since LDO development is liable to pay community infrastructure levy  (CIL) in the same way as other development proposals, viability studies will need to take account of any CIL in force, or CIL which may be adopted after the LDO is adopted but before development commences."

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