A consultation on reforms to planning committees has been opened by the government today.

It proposes a scheme of delegation which categorises planning applications into two tiers:

➡️ Tier A – types of applications which must be delegated to officers in all cases.

➡️ Tier B – types of applications which must be delegated to officers unless the chief planner and chair of committee agree it should go to committee based on a gateway test.

Tier A includes applications for such matters as householder development, minor commercial development, minor residential development, reserved matter approvals, non-material amendments to planning permissions and applications for the approval of conditions.

Tier B includes applications where the principle of development is a key issue and ‘all significant new housing and commercial developments’.

Other proposed reforms as part of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill include mandatory training for committee members and a maximum of 11 members per committee.

The government has also announced proposals to streamline the planning process for SME builders on smaller sites.

They include:

🏡 Faster decisions for small sites – developments of up to nine homes will benefit from streamlined planning and eased Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements, with faster decisions being taken by expert planning officers, not planning committees.

🏘️ A new ‘medium site’ category – sites between 10 and 49 homes will face simpler rules and fewer costs.

💹 More land and financing options for SMEs – Homes England will release more of its land exclusively to SMEs, and a new National Housing Delivery Fund to be confirmed at the government’s next spending review

Reform of the planning process and committee responsibilities is well overdue and measures to speed up the process and cut red tape are to be welcomed.

We’ll digest the documents in full before making our representations and will keep you updated about the reforms.