Penfold Review recommends reducing developer consents

In an attempt to reduce the obstacles and delays that can hinder development projects, the Government set up the Penfold Review in December 2009 to look at streamlining the processes by which developers obtain non-planning consents for property development projects.

The Penfold Review has now been published and has made 12 recommendations for change:

1. Reinforcing a service culture

The Government should ensure that non-planning consent decision makers (1) recognise the contribution they make to sustainable development through the decisions they make on non-planning consents; (2) publish a quality development code; (3) publish annual performance statistics; and (4) undertake customer satisfaction surveys.

2. Improving co-ordination and governance

The Government should (1) encourage local planning authorities (LPAs) to adopt development management good practice; and (2) ensure that non-planning consenting bodies include a clear statement in their quality development code about guidance and advice they offer at the pre-application stage.

3. Addressing resource pressures

The Government should promote good working practices in resource-sharing, behaviour and culture by (1) encouraging LPAs to work with each other and the private sector; (2) requiring non-planning consent decision makers to make more efficient use of resources; and (3) enabling consenting bodies to charge for discretionary services.

4. Improving the accessibility of information

The Government should improve the quality of advice and information available through BusinessLink and the Planning Portal.

5. Simplifying the landscape

The Government should reduce the number of non-planning consents by (1) reviewing non-planning consents that have not been reviewed for more than ten years to ascertain whether they are still needed; (2) merging conservation area consent with planning permission; (3) merging listed building consent and scheduled monument consent; and (4) merging water abstraction and impoundment consents with the environmental permitting regime.

6. Improving proportionality

The Government should (1) increase the number of small commercial developments and small non-residential developments that are treated as de minimus (i.e. falling below designated thresholds requiring a consent application); (2) Identify the current consent requirements that would be suitable for a process below formal consent application or where deeming consent is appropriate; and (3) review the inquiry and appeal processes for planning and non-planning consent with a view to standardising and simplifying related processes.

7. Clarifying the boundary between planning and non-planning consents

The Government should (1) ensure that the revised national planning policy framework confirms the centrality of the planning process in determining whether a development should go ahead; (2) ensure LPAs have robust local development documents in place; (3) promote the use of pre-application discussions; and (4) create clear rules of engagement between LPAs and the non-planning consent decision makers.

8. Making changes to specific regimes

The Government should clarify what is material to planning and non-planning consent regimes, remove duplication and reduce the need for detailed design work.

9. Facilitating integration of planning and non-planning consents

The Government should encourage more LPAs to offer an improved and integrated planning and non-planning consents service.

10. Extending unification of planning and non-planning consents

The Government should consider extending the use of development consent orders to a wider range of projects.

11. Providing oversight of the planning and non-planning consents landscape

The Government should create a new body responsible for maintaining central oversight of the planning and non-planning consents.

12. Making change happen

The Government should develop an action plan to implement the recommendations of the Penfold Review.

The next step

The Penfold Review’s recommendations have been welcomed by the British Property Federation and the Home Builders Federation. The Government will now consider the recommendations and publish a formal response in autumn 2010. Full details of the recommendations are here.