Recent Blog Entries

Curious about what your LPA's new housing needs figure is? My quick calculation shows significant uplifts....

The latest Ministerial Measures show improvement in the proportion of appeals being determined within 20, 26 and 52 weeks.

PINS model conditions are so useful - download a copy here.

There's wide variation between LPAs in their speed of determining planning applications, and some are improving while others are going in the wrong direction.

Which is the most vital part of your planning application or planning appeal? I’ve learnt the hard way.

An encouraging statement was recently issued by a senior planning judge, that benefits are still benefits even if they are required by policy.

You can now search with wildcards * and special commands to find search terms within the same SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH or NEAR or NOTNEAR other words. Great tools for better searches.

How good is your local planning authority (LPA) at winning appeals? See its past performance in a handy table here for both last year and the year before.

How do we make work easier? Quicker? More successful? There’s a tried and tested way, which most of us ignore.

For years the tortoise has worn racing ferrari camouflage, which has fooled nobody except maybe the government.

Useful links that can boost the weight given to the affordable units in your scheme.

YouTube gave me a brainwave.

Interesting what’s not changed in the revised NPPF, such as the Housing Delivery Test.

Christmas came early yesterday with the flurry of long-awaited documents from dear old Michael.

‘Decision-making hygiene’ is an intriguing new concept.  What does it mean for planners?

Are you facing a difficult class Q or barn conversion application? Don’t despair; you can take heart from many successful appeals.

This year's worst performing LPAs for planning appeals and link to the results for all LPAs' performance in 2022-23.

Is custom and self-build development easier to get planning consent for?  Yes and no.

Our top 5 tips to help you succeed

Will the Housing Delivery Test make any difference to your appeal’s chances of success? You may find the answer is not what you expected.

When someone mentions that appeal decision down the road, turn left past the pub, you know, at whatsitcalled…..don’t you groan and wish there was a map? Good news – there is!

Design ideas abound in section 80e appeals, offering inspiration for more run-of-the-mill developments. What can we learn from them to sharpen our skills?

The press, at last, seems to understand planners' frustrations.  But is the claim of a vetocracy actually true?

What is a realistic view of the direction of travel?

The drive for zero carbon can give planners’ headaches, but could hemp be part of the answer, given its negative carbon footprint? 

The Planning Inspector's annual statistics for 2021-22 have recently been published with each individual Inspector and LPA's performance now available.

Hopes have been raised by a Decision allowing 4 self-build dwellings in Wyre Forest, but how easy is it to replicate this success?

Providing Inspectors with hard evidence can be helpful if tackled in the right way.

"Is my fuel bill sustainable?" is becoming an everyday conversation bringing sustainability into focus. But do the lower carbon emissions of new development make any difference in appeals?

Is the NPPF requirement for tree-lined streets being applied in appeals? We examine 3 appeals.

The Government has just published the Housing Delivery Test results, summarised in the handy table below.

Which matters more, beauty or meeting housing targets?  It’s a decision that hangs in the balance in many appeals.

The Housing Delivery Test is underway, with housing delivery figures published yesterday causing some local planning authorities to break into a cold sweat.

Over 2022 we'll keep a running tally of Platinum Jubilee landmarks featuring in Appeal Decisions, in honour of the Queen.

COP26 is focusing minds on renewable energy but the NPPF requires 'beautiful' buildings.  How can we make renewable infrastructure as beautiful as the Victorians did with chimneys?

Even small developments of less than 5 dwellings can benefit from the “tilted balance” in certain circumstances. We explore 3 examples where minor housing developments were allowed despite conflict with the Local Plan.

Are you curious about the geographic pattern of appeals allowed?  Ever wanted to zoom in on appeal hotspots?  AppealFinder has introduced a new map tool that enables you to do exactly that.

The Planning Inspectorate’s latest statistical release on 22nd July shows a mix of good, bad and ugly news on the fraught issue of the likely timescale for a Decision on your appeal.

This year's 20 worst performing LPAs.

“Timing is everything,” as they say.  This is certainly true when considering alternative designs as the following example of a Class Q conversion from a barn to a dwelling demonstrates.

Why are appeal success rates so low at only 26% overall and 19% for minor residential developments in the Q3 figures for 2020-21?

There are certainly some benefits in replacing the variability of individual officers with a more consistent and therefore more predictable system, but will it be good or bad news for appellants?

If your planning application has been refused on design grounds, how do you decide whether its worth appealing?  Is there a relatively objective way of assessing your chances?  We have managed to get hold of the PINS training manual for appeal Inspectors and have checked its guidance to Inspectors with design issues in mind.

November 2020 marks the date for the full application of the Housing Delivery Test.  It is not so much like bonfire and fireworks' night but more like gathering leaves in a gale.

Quality as well as quantity is a persistent theme in the Government’s messages to planners but is design being cited more often in appeals?

A recent High Court Judgment has made it more difficult to convert a stand-alone garage into a dwelling, where the dwelling is in the countryside.

We put to the test the theory that an up-to-date Local Plan reduces the number of appeals allowed by comparing 2 years of statistics.

The Planning Inspectorate's new procedures in response to Covid19 could change appeal procedures forever.

If there is a high level of housing need, the Inspector may be justified in giving greater weight to the provision of new housing, irrespective of whether or not a LPA is achieving its targets. 

There is widespread support for implementing the report's recommendations and we can all agree on certain design issues.... or can we?

Following the Chancellor’s budget last week, the Government has announced its intention to modernise the planning system with an ‘ambitious’ Planning White Paper.

A change to the HDT's methodology has increased the annual housing need figure for most local authorities with a mean increase of 19 percent between 2017/18 and 2018/19.

The Housing Delivery Test (HDT) results may be irrelevant next year if the Government follow the ideas in the radical report 'Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century'.

The High Court confirmed an Inspector’s discretion to allow development beyond settlement boundaries despite reasonable housing land supply.  There are five aspects of this case that will interest others considering similar cases.

With design rising up the agenda, how many planning appeals actually cite local or national design policies?  The findings are surprising.

The National Design Guide was published in October 2019 alongside updates to NPPG.  Is it a blessing or a curse?

The Right-to-Build-Portal provided by the NaCSBA provides an online summary that enables you to easily compare the number of people registered for self-build plots against the number of plots with planning permission in every LPA.

The recently adopted Plan for Milton Keynes was found to be out-of-date with less than a five year supply of housing land, reflecting the revised definition of a deliverable site in the Feb 2019 Framework. The Inspector agreed there was some 'optimism bias' in the Council's delivery estimates.

Previous appeal decisions are relevant according to the High Court.  In a Judgment issued on 29/01/2019, the High Court ruled that an earlier appeal decision is capable of being a “material planning consideration” that must be taken into account by an appeal Inspector.

A recent appeal decision found that the need to meet self-build and custom-build demand outweighed conflict with the local development plan.

The debate over whether we need any more houses can be highly emotive between appellants and objectors.  National statistics can move the debate to a more objective level.

An independent review of Planning Appeal Inquiries chaired by Bridget Rosewell OBE has made recommendations on how to make planning inquiries faster and more effective.

Local planning authorities who refuse housing because it is 'isolated' could be in trouble given the Courts ruling on the application of this word in a planning context.

Generally an appellant's personal circumstances are ignored in an appeal, but there are a small number of cases where it can be relevant.  In this case the Inspector afforded considerable weight to the exceptional medical circumstances of the appellant and his need for the proposed dwelling.