Written evidence submitted by the Country Land & Business Association [PDR 027]
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is the membership organisation for owners of land, property and business in rural England and Wales. Our 28,000 members own around 10 million acres and operate over 250 different types of businesses in rural areas. Our members are the most significant provider of houses for rent in rural areas and our members’ businesses also generate housing need and help sustain rural communities.
Permitted Development Rights
(i) What role should permitted development rights (PDR) play in the planning system?
Permitted development rights are a long-standing part of the development management system. Benefits attributed to them include:
For example, a village located in a rural part of the Surrey Green Belt wanted to deliver affordable homes at a discounted rent, on a rural exception site, to be made available for local people. In the event it took 15 years of concerted effort by the parishioners to deliver five dwellings through the Local Plan. If PDR for the conversion of farm buildings to residential use had been available to them at the outset, the five dwellings could have been built and occupied within three years.
It may be argued that since permitted development rights relate to relatively minor development in most cases, they have limited ability to contribute greatly to Government policy aims. Nevertheless, it is important that permitted development rights should, as far as possible, be consistent with government policy, to avoid hindering implementation and encourage development that accords with policy aims.
Similarly, the ability to change the use of farm buildings to a range of flexible commercial uses (GPDO Part 3 Class R) is extremely important for diversification and new job creation in rural areas and the ability to use permitted development rights has assisted in delivering these quickly with resulting benefits to the rural economy. Unfortunately, MHCLG has not been collecting data on these rights since December 2016 so it is unclear how many commercial premises have resulted from these rights
The GPDO remains a key tool of the planning system. The rights follow government policy/guidance and must be maintained.
In rural areas, the impact of PDR on the quality and quantity of new housing is hugely beneficial. The PDR under Part 3 Class Q are providing new dwellings, both smaller (100sqm) and larger (up to 465sqm). Indeed, according to MHCLG statistics, the Class Q rights show that 10,238 prior approval applications have been granted against 6,614 refused between 2014 and December 2020. Since 2015 the Class Q rights have produced 2316 net additional dwellings in rural areas.
Clearly this is by no means enough to fill the gap between need and provision in rural communities. Indeed, rural communities continue to feel that their needs for housing, jobs and public services are ignored by successive governments.
For example, the delivery of new build affordable homes at discounted rents continues to be very difficult to achieve in rural areas not least because of economies of scale not being available (higher build costs, small numbers of houses, site provision and so on) but also because of local plan policies that deem many villages as “unsustainable” because of the continued use of out-dated sustainability criteria by planning authorities. See the CLA’s Strong Foundations Sustainable Villages – making rural communities fit for the future report here
It is for these reasons that the CLA’s Rural Powerhouse planning report – a planning system designed for the rural economy (July 2020) recommended the introduction of permitted development rights for the construction of new-build affordable housing for rent (discounted) on rural exception sites as a mechanism for speeding up the delivery of this critically needed housing-type in smaller rural settlements. The recommendation is set out below:
“Permitted development rights for new-build affordable housing for rent on rural exception sites – These permitted development rights are aimed at rural landowners who are willing to erect new build affordable housing for rent on an area of their land to provide critically needed housing aimed at the local community. The CLA’s proposal would allow the construction of between 1 up to, 9 affordable dwellings for rent (discounted), on a rural exception site. Prior approval would clearly be required and would need to be the subject of carefully thought-through criteria that may include: location, transport/highways, siting, design, external appearance, flood risk, noise, contamination, housing need in the settlement and/or parish, housing size, public consultation, short construction period condition and a clause concerning discounted rent. There should also need to be a condition that the housing must be built, retained and managed by the landowner for the benefit of the local community.”
(iii) What is the impact of PDR on local planning authorities, developer contributions and the provision of infrastructure and services?
It is the CLA’s opinion that greater use of PDR is relatively economical as it leads to administrative savings which benefit tax payers and service users. The greater use of PDR should reduce planning authority departments workload. On the other hand, planning authorities may have to manage larger quantities of prior approval applications and within a faster determination period (56 days).
Developer contributions: The Community Infrastructure Levy provides for charges to be applied to new dwellings, and commercial premises, including those that are constructed using permitted development rights. Planning authorities that rely solely on section106 planning obligations, to raise funds for local infrastructure provision, will not benefit from additional developer contributions when new dwellings or commercial premises are created under permitted development rights. That said, this should not outweigh the positive impact of the use PDR in terms of delivering much-needed small-scale development in rural areas.
Provision of infrastructure and services: the creation of more dwellings should assist in the retention of public services and may possibly lead to the reinstatement of lost public services
(iv) Is the government’s approach to PDR consistent with the vision in the Planning White Paper?
Yes. The Planning White Paper proposes radical reforms, including deregulation, to simplify the system to deliver economic and housing growth. The use of PDR fits into the Government’s deregulation agenda.
(v) What is the impact of PDR on the ability of local authorities to plan development and shape their local communities?
The introduction of PDR for renewal of town centres through the provision of increased numbers of dwellings will provide communities with critically needed new homes. The new rights should deliver flexibility and mean that communities can be more agile in meeting their own needs.
Planning authorities who wish to prevent fragmentation of town centres can use updated local plan policies and other tools, such as Article 4 Directions, to protect high streets and primary shopping areas.
(vi) Is the government right to argue that PDR supports business and economic growth?
Yes. Planning rules in their current incarnation increase costs of housing and the costs of doing business. The CLA’s Rural Powerhouse report – a planning system designed for the rural economy argues that planning deregulation encourages rural businesses to consider new investment and increased diversification of farming businesses which will be all the more relevant with the end of direct farm payments. This investment leads to the creation of better-quality jobs and associated salaries, which lead to increased tax receipts through income tax and National Insurance; it can improve the interconnectedness of rural and urban supply chains, and increase capital flows through the supply chain. Overall, the use of PDR assists in delivering more diverse and therefore more robust economies and communities in rural areas. The use of PDR increases flows of income into and through local economies.
(vii) What is the impact of PDR on the involvement of local communities in the planning process?
Many of the PDR introduced into the GPDO contain a requirement for a prior approval application to be submitted to the planning authority. The decision-making process includes a 21-day public consultation period. This means that communities are given the opportunity to lodge objections/supporting statements about proposals that are the subject of the prior approval process, this includes the very recent PDR for the change of use of town centre commercial premises to dwellings.
Furthermore, as local plans are updated, communities are positively encouraged to be engaged, at an early stage, in the consultation process and make their voices heard about the future vision for their town centre.
A careful balancing exercise will be required to deliver much needed new dwellings in places where people want to live as well as ensuring the retention of, or provision of new, public services and commercial space.
(viii) Should the government reform PDR? Is so, how?
For the reasons set out in this response, wholesale reform of the GPDO is not required.
One area of the GPDO that does require some reform is Part 14 Renewable Energy both for Class A domestic and Class B non-domestic microgeneration. The wording of these rights is confusing as it is unclear whether the rights apply, for example, to a ground source heat pump, or whether they apply to a ground source heat pump system (similarly for air source heat pumps/systems).
April 2021