Summary

Our Digital Planning Map has captured every planning policy and piece of supplementary planning guidance that is currently active in our Area of Concern.

Definition

Planning policies are the legislative constraints that impact any building project in a given area, no matter the size. They tend to be created by the Local Authority that governs the postcode in question, but are designed to fit in with national or regional planning guidance that are produced by higher authorities such as the UK Government’s Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Local Government, or the Mayor of London. Supplementary guidance is similarly designed by Local Authorities or Government Departments, as well as sometimes by government-funded or supported organisations like Historic England. These documents provide key advice to those designing or building on topics such as aesthetic design, the best way to provide leisure space or how to mitigate negative environmental impacts.

Attaining planning permission for any building project is a complex process. Permission itself refers to consent from a Local Authority for any proposed building, or extensive changes to a building, and can turn a piece of land from one that may have never had anything built upon into one that is legally viable for development. Such permissions can either be in full, which means you have the ok to begin work, or an outline in principle, which is more to determine whether any build is viable, and additional plans must later be submitted if works are to take place.

Interpretation

When a postcode is selected, the user will be presented with every logged policy that will impact any project that is built on that site, separated into 12 categories. These categories are as follows:

Each policy we’ve documented has a unique set of contextual information that provides its accompanying details. We have logged this specific policy text, which can be viewed when the policy is selected and should be used as an overview of what the policy will impact when making any sort of planning decision. We haven’t included the Justification text or other surrounding information, as this would make the text in our map cumbersome, however we have provided links to the original planning document source, which we urge anyone making a planning application to study in full.

We have also included the option to view the policies that are linked to the selected policy, which must be read in conjuntion with your selected policy, as well as the relevant Supplementary Planning Guidance which the policy must be considered in accordance with.

The user can also view a searchable glossary which includes any tricky terms or difficult-to-decipher abbreviations.

Why the metric matters from commercial and residential inhabitants’ perspectives

What the map uniquely presents is the location-based policies at a postcode level, which allows the user to conserve time reading and cross-referencing thousands of pages of Development Plan pdfs, analysing policies that won’t actually affect the site they are looking at, or indeed paying for someone to do so. We show only the policies that impact that postcode and the extent of the boundary that policy extends to.

Building at least a basic understanding of the planning process in order to smoothly navigate its intricacies is imperative to ensuring one can get planning permission granted. When considered alongside the functions that allow a user to view any related policies or supplementary documents, as well as the glossary, this metric will significantly demystify the planning process for anyone who is not a planning professional. In doing so it will save users, whether they be curious amateurs, keen extension builders, or planning professionals, a great deal of time and money, allowing them to bypass the initial tedious and time-consuming part of the planning process - that is deciphering which constraints will impact a project.

Any permission will only be granted if an application can show that it complies with the planning legislation set out in the relevant documentation, which our platform will display to the user. Putting in a planning application can be an expensive undertaking and ensuring that your plan abides by the rules set out for the postcode you wish to work within is key to keeping those costs down.

General Commentary

Planning legislation is something of a hot potato in the UK, with what seems like a loud handful questioning its utility in the face of those championing it. Notably the TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been at the forefront of the debate after a restaurant on his farm in the Cotswold AONB was closed down following a number of letters from the rural Local Authority informing him it breached numerous planning regulations. It transpired that the restaurant had not been granted permission in the first place and attempts at using a planning loophole were found to be invalid.

Echoing some of the criticisms some have of planning legislation, Clarkson believes the requirements demanded by Local Authorities to be excessive and a hindrance to building, leading to a slowing of all types of potentially important projects. Indeed, this is one argument levelled against planning authorities in the face of a deepening housing crisis.

Champions of planning legislation, however, say that policies are there to ensure the quality and safety of buildings, as well as the protection of the natural or heritage environment surrounding them and to make sure that developments are built in a well-thought-out location. While there may be an elongated process for approval, and more hoops to jump through, planning advocates argue a higher quality building is more likely to stand the test of time and benefit an area in the long run than one knocked up too quickly. Legislation on the most part also allows local residents to have their say on building projects that may impact them, and policies such as Section 106 ensure that even luxury developments contribute something to the local community. What’s more is there are sites for over 1 million new homes that have been granted planning permission that haven’t even been built on, and some even call legislation too lenient on such topics as permitted development and lacking in other areas like social housing and fire safety.

Whichever side of the debate one finds themselves on, it is a fact that legislation is in place and must, for the most part, be abided by. Over 85% of planning applications are in fact successful, but the hope is that by making the planning system simpler to navigate and better understood, our Planning Policy Map metric can improve that number!

 Trivia

Human kind has been planning their civilisations ever since groups of people began living in communities, but in the UK urban planning began its process of formalisation around the time of the Industrial Revolution, when the the populations of cities began to balloon and the health of city-dwellers became a concern. Reformers such as the Health of Towns Association were founded in the mid-19th century and pushed for reforms such as the 1875 Public Health Act which made it compulsory for local powers to purchase or build sewers, control water supplies, ensure the safety of cellars and lodging houses, make sure new developments had running water and drainage, ensure all streets had pavements and street lighting, and banned the building of shoddy housing. While its aims were admirable, implementation was very difficult to enforce.

Ebenezer Howard published his influential Garden Cities concept in 1902, which revolved around the idea that surrounding the main urban centre of 58,000 people should be smaller 9,000-acre satellite towns with a population of 32,000. These would be connected to the urban centre with road and rail links and have plenty of open green space and public parks, which would provide the working classes with an alternative to either isolated rural or overcrowded, unhealthy urban life. Construction began on Letchworth Garden City in 1903 and was shortly followed by Hampstead Garden Suburb, which prompted one of the first planning acts in 1906 which stated that in this area homes should be not less than 50 feet between houses on opposite sides of the street and with densities of no more than eight homes per acre. 

The 1909 Housing and Town Planning Act followed shortly after, banning “back-to-back” housing and in 1919 the government passed the Housing Act which sought to finance the building of 500,000 new homes in response to the devastation of the First World War. Subsequent Acts in 1924 and 1930 helped Local Authorities build 1.1 million homes.

A Ministry of Town and Country Planning was set up in 1943 in response to the devastation of the Second World War and in London, Patrick Abercrombie helped pioneer the County of London Plan in 1943 and the Greater London Plan in 1944. These helped organise housing, traffic, transport, employment and industry, and leisure space, and attempted to curb urban sprawl with suburbanisation.

Planning as we know it today was truly born in 1947, however, with the Town and Country Planning Act which was passed under the Atlee government, and now stated that planning permission was needed should one wish to build instead of ownership conferring one’s right to develop land as was previously the case. Local Authorities were also given the ability to compulsorily purchase land, build their own housing, control advertising and preserve buildings of architectural merit and woodland. Except for the implementation of the Green Belt in 1955, not a great deal has really changed since!