New bill will restrict use of pre-commencement conditions and support neighbourhood planning

A government briefing note (85-page / 876 KB PDF), released last week to accompany the Queen's speech at the state opening of parliament, said the Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill will make the planning process "clearer, faster and fairer".

Pre-commencement planning conditions must be discharged by developers before they start development under a planning permission. The government note said "excessive use" of such conditions by councils "can slow down or stop the construction of homes after they have been given planning permission".

The note said the Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill would "tackle the overuse, and in some cases, misuse of certain planning conditions" and ensure that they are "only imposed by local planning authorities where they are absolutely necessary".

Planning and housing minister Brandon Lewis told parliament last week that he had seen examples of planning permissions with "hundreds of conditions attached". He said "when sites that have gained permission are drowned with pre-commencement conditions, disillusion with the entire planning system sets in. Frankly it is toxic."

"This is not—let me be very clear—about taking away any protections or checks; it is about stopping needless bureaucracy and time-wasting," said Lewis. "Our intention is that many issues will be resolvable at the same time that the building is under way, making sure that any legitimate concerns are addressed without holding up production of the houses that we need."

The government note said the Bill would "further strengthen neighbourhood planning and give even more power to local people". It said the legislation would make "the government duty to support [neighbourhood planning] groups more transparent" and improve "the process for reviewing and updating plans".

The note also said the Bill would "consolidate and clarify over 100 years of conflicting statute and case law" on the process for agreeing the level of compensation to be paid to those whose property interests are acquired by compulsory purchase. Lewis told parliament that "the government do not propose changing the existing fundamental principle that compensation should be paid at market value in the absence of the scheme underlying the compulsory purchase."

Planning expert Beth Grant of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "With its focus on cutting red tape and speeding up the building process, the Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill would appear to be geared towards meeting the demands of the development industry. However, the limited level of detail available at this early stage makes it difficult to predict whether it will be successful in achieving this purpose in practice."

"Promises regarding the abolition of "toxic" and unnecessary pre-commencement conditions and the simplification of both the compulsory purchase and neighbourhood planning processes sound very positive," said Grant. "However, the devil will of course be in the detail."