Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017

Policy background

The Government committed to encourage communities engaged in neighbourhood planning to complete the process and to assist others to draw up their own plans. Over 2,000 communities have taken the decision to produce a neighbourhood development plan or an order. The Act strengthens neighbourhood planning by ensuring that planning decision-makers take account of well-advanced neighbourhood development plans; requiring parish councils and designated neighbourhood forums to be automatically notified of future planning applications in their area; and, by giving neighbourhood development plans full legal effect at an earlier stage. It introduces a proportionate process for modifying neighbourhood development orders and plans and facilitates the modification of neighbourhood areas where a neighbourhood development order or plan has already been made in relation to that area. The Act also makes the duty on local planning authorities to support neighbourhood planning groups and the neighbourhood planning examination process more transparent.

Development plan documents are the key documents through which local planning authorities can set out a vision and framework for the future development of the area, engaging with their communities in doing so. Producing these documents should be a shared endeavour – led by the local planning authority but in collaboration with local communities, developers, landowners and other interested parties. The measures in the Act strengthen this plan-led system by ensuring that all local planning authorities in England identify the strategic priorities for the development and use of land in their areas (with guidance to be provided on addressing the housing needs of older people and people with disabilities) in an up-to-date plan. The Act also provides for effective interventions where documents are not in place and seeks to improve the involvement of communities and others in plan-making.

The Act introduces a power for the Secretary of State to make regulations which prescribe the circumstances where certain conditions may or may not be imposed and descriptions of such conditions for the purpose of ensuring that conditions meet national policy tests in the National Planning Policy Framework.
Pre-commencement conditions are planning conditions which prevent any development authorised by a planning permission from taking place until the condition has been formally discharged, for example, the condition may require the approval of detailed aspects of the development. The Act ensures that pre-commencement planning conditions are only used by local planning authorities where they have the written agreement of the applicant, subject to any exemptions that the Secretary of State may prescribe in regulations.
It is intended that the process of agreeing pre-commencement conditions before a decision is issued should become a routine part of the dialogue between the applicant and the local planning authority, building on current best practice. In the event that an applicant refuses to accept a necessary pre-commencement condition proposed by a local planning authority, the authority can refuse planning permission. This will maintain appropriate protections for important matters such as heritage, the natural environment, green spaces, and measures to mitigate the risk of flooding.

The Government is committed to supporting pubs, which can play an important role in communities. The Act requires the Secretary of State to remove permitted development rights for change of use from, and demolition of, drinking establishments, including pubs so that a planning application is required for local consideration. It further requires the introduction of a new permitted development right for change of use from a drinking establishment to a mixed use drinking establishment and restaurant, to provide greater flexibility for pubs to increase their food offer, ensuring pubs can develop their business to support their continued viability. Any change of use which involves a drinking establishment no longer operating as such would require a planning application.

In the Housing White Paper 2017, the Government committed to legislate to enable the creation of locally accountable new town development corporations by modifying the New Towns Act 1981. A local model would transfer the responsibility of overseeing the development corporation and the delivery of a new town to a local body.
The Act allows the Secretary of State to create a new town development corporation for which a local authority rather than central government is responsible. It allows the Secretary of State to appoint one or more local authorities to oversee the delivery of the new town through a development corporation. It also gives the Secretary of State the power to modify the New Towns Act 1981 through secondary legislation, so that some of the functions for overseeing the development corporation which sit with central government can be transferred to the relevant local authority or local authorities, and makes further changes necessary to enable the local authority led model to work effectively.

Permitted development rights for change of use to residential use, introduced in recent years, are contributing to housing delivery. The Act allows the Secretary of State to require local planning authorities to record specified prior approvals for permitted development rights on the planning register, as is the case for applications for planning permission. This enables the collection of information on the number of new homes permitted through permitted development, so that the contribution these measures are making to help achieve the Government’s housing supply ambitions can be more accurately recorded.

Following the reforms introduced by the Housing and Planning Act 2016, the Act makes further changes to the law on compulsory purchase. It clarifies the statutory framework for compensation, which does not affect the fundamental principles on which it is assessed. The Act also makes further technical changes, such as introducing a general power to obtain temporary possession of land and a requirement to bring compulsory purchase orders into operation within a set period of time.