Betwixt, Bothered and Bewildered: Street Votes, Transparency in Trusts and the London Plan review

Christmas is over. New Year is just around the corner. We are in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call, The Twilight Zone…. Or, more accurately, the forgotten three days between Christmas and New Year!

I wouldn't normally blog this week. It is a week for Christmas recovery (if you aren't working) and catching up on emails (if you are). However, someone gave youngest a giggling, farting, unicorn that doesn't have an off-button…. and DLUHC snuck out some announcements at about 4pm on 22nd December, and earlier today, that deserve some attention.

Street Votes Consultation

On the afternoon of 22 December 2023, when most of us had logged off for the holiday, DLUHC published a consultation on the design and operation of Street Votes - the new hyper-local development orders introduced by LURA.

The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 2 February 2024.

The process set out in the consultation seems almost deliberately complex and is likely to require a wide range of professional expertise to navigate.. 

In summary however:

• A group of “qualifying residents” must prepare a “proposal” setting out what their street vote development order will permit; which must contain specified information, meet a number of set criteria, and fall within pre-determined parameters.
• The proposal must then be subjected to a local  consultation exercise;
• It is then submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for examination; and 
• put to a referendum before it can finally be made.

Assuming the street vote development order makes it through all of these steps - it can then be relied on by residents in the “street order” for a specified period. 

The government has not decided how long this period should be. The options being consulted on vary from:

• A period specified in the order itself;
• Ten years; to
• The order can be relied on permanently.

Almost every aspect of how this system is intended to work is out for consultation. 

The consultation questions include:

• Who should be a ‘qualifying resident’,
• How many ‘qualifying residents’ within an area need to be involved in submitting a proposal,
• The information that needs to be contained within a proposal,
• The exact limitations on when and how it can be used,
• The examination and referenda requirements;
• The approach to be taken to local constraints, traffic impacts and Environmental Impact Assessments; and
• How to deal with pre-commencement requirements, s.106 obligations and CIL.

It is, however, noteworthy that the government expects a high-level of consenus amongst residents seeking to bring forward street vote development orders.

The consultation proposes the following criteria for being able to put forward a proposal:

And also that the following thresholds are proposed for an order being approved at a referendum.

• at least 60% of those eligible to vote must vote in favour
• at least one voter in at least half of the voting households in the street area votes in favour. We are also interested in views on whether the relevant local authority should have discretion to apply this threshold

As such, the greatest challenge to adopting a street vote development order may not end up being the complexity of the process itself, but instead getting enough of your neighbours to both engage with and agree to it!

Consultation on the transparency of land ownership involving trusts

Today has also seen the launch of yet another consultation. 

The transparency of land ownership involving trusts consultation closes on 21 February 2024.

This is technically not a planning consultation, so I am not going to spend to much time on it, however it is worth being aware of.

The consultation builds on existing measures designed to make land ownership in the UK more transparent and ties in with the Building Safety Act, so there could be broader implications than it initially appears.

The scope of the consultation is set out below:

"This consultation seeks views on improving transparency of land ownership involving trusts. It seeks specific views on options to widen access to trust information held on the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE). It also seeks general views on how ownership of land involving trusts can be made more transparent. To help inform decisions on balancing the making of information available and any legitimate concerns in sharing that information publicly, the consultation seeks views on what data would be most useful and why."

London Plan Review Terms of Reference

December 22nd also saw the publication of the terms of reference for the London Plan Review.

They are quite interesting, so I have set them out below:

"Housing delivery continues to underperform in London, with an average 37,000 net additional dwellings over the past 3 years which falls considerably short of the Mayor’s London Plan target.

Further to the internal review, the Secretary of State has appointed expert advisers to offer views on whether there are specific changes to London Plan policies that could facilitate urban brownfield regeneration in London for housing delivery in an appropriate manner.

The expert advisers will be supported in this task by the external consultants Lichfields, and DLUHC officials.

Scope
The advisers, and supporting Lichfields consultants, have been appointed for their expertise in order to provide an independent and impartial view of the changes needed to the London Plan.

The expert advisers will assess whether there are specific changes to London Plan policies that could facilitate urban brownfield regeneration in London for housing delivery in an appropriate manner and, if necessary, recommend changes to the London Plan accordingly.

The output of the review will be a short report, delivered by 15 January 2024, to the Secretary of State.

Objectives
To consider and, if appropriate, make recommendations for specific changes to the London Plan. The Secretary of State will share the recommendations with the Mayor to consider their implementation.

To work with Lichfields consultants to ensure that there is an evidence base which supports the recommendations of the expert advisers.

To complete a report on how, specifically, the London Plan could be improved to facilitate the delivery of new homes on brownfield sites.

Project Outcome
The report will be submitted to the Secretary of State and the conclusions of the review will be shared with the Mayor of London in advance of publication."

Nutrient Neutrality Update

And finally, on 20 December, DLUHC published a nutrient neutrality update that I strongly recommend reading in full. 

Whilst the update is packed full of useful information, it was the following paragraph in particular that caught my attention:

“In addition, the new duty on water companies to upgrade wastewater treatment works in designated areas by 2030 – and the requirement for developers and local authorities to consider these as certain for the purposes of an assessment under the Habitats Regulations – will be in effect before 26 January 2024. Designated catchments and specific wastewater treatment works to be upgraded will be publicly listed. The designations will significantly reduce the average costs of nutrient mitigation for development connecting to wastewater treatment works  subject to the upgrade duty. The reduction in costs is expected to range between 37% to 95% for phosphorus and between 46% to 64% for nitrogen (depending on the catchment).”

For these provisions in LURA to come into effect  before 26 January 2024, the relevent designations will need to be made pretty darn quickly in the new year….. 

It looks as if 2024 could get off to a very interesting start indeed! 

Read more about Irwin Mitchell's Planning team. 

This consultation seeks views on the detailed operation of street vote development orders, which will inform the content of regulations using new powers in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023.”