Planning, Environment and Property Newsletter - Winter 2025 Edition
Welcome to our January 2025 edition of the Planning Environment & Property Newsletter. A very Happy New Year to you all.
The end of 2024 saw a significant array of development in the realms of planning policy, legislation and consultations and there is a lot more to come!
Lord Banner KC’s Independent review into legal challenges against Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects reported on 28 October 2024 making a series of findings and recommendations aimed at streamlining the process. This was followed by a call for evidence from the MoJ which ran until the end
of December 2024.
On 12 December 2024 the new NPPF was published, which should form the foundation of the (now not so new) Government’s aim to accelerate economic growth by reforming the planning system to make it more efficient and transparent. Hot off the press, Thomas Hill KC, Peter Village KC, Celina Colquhoun, James Burton, Victoria Hutton provided their views on the implications of the changes in a webinar on 16 December 2024 which can be accessed here.
Lastly, on 19 December 2024 the consultation on Compulsory Purchase Process and Compensation Reforms was opened and will run until 13 February 2025. The consultation seeks views on a range of proposals aimed at implementing technical reforms to the compulsory purchase process to make it cheaper, quicker and fairer.
In addition to these the Government is in the process of publishing a series of working papers on different aspects of planning reform. We are told they are not subject to formal consultation however online responses are encouraged. These cover at the moment Brownfield Passports; Development and Nature Recovery; and Planning Committees. All key stuff.
We kick off this edition with an article by Stephen Tromans KC and Ned Helme which considers one of the said policy working papers “Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery” and how the Government’s aims of drastically increasing the rate of housebuilding and infrastructure development can proceed whilst also achieving the equally challenging commitments on net zero and ambitions for nature recovery.
We also have a series of articles on other cases and developments from 2024 which have caught our attention:
- John Pugh Smith writes on how the ability to deliver BNG can be progressed and developments made truly greener;
- Stephen Tromans KC, in his second contribution, addresses the continuing problems posed by contaminated land both for public and private law claims;
- James Burton and Christopher Moss look at the decision in Test Valley BC v Fiske [2024] EWCA Civ 1541, in which James acted for the successful respondent Mrs Fiske, which considers the ambit of s.73 TCPA 1990;
- Rachel Sullivan provides her thoughts on the case of White v Plymouth City Council [2024] EWHC 2854 (Admin) in which Rachel acted for the claimant who successfully argued that contempt proceedings, brought by the Claimant against the local authority for felling trees, were an Aarhus Convention claim and thus the Claimant was entitled to costs protection;
- Daniel Kozelko considers the case of Farnham Town Council v SSLUHC [2024] EWHC 2458
(Admin) which considers whether the court can extend the time for service of a claim under
s. 288 TCPA 1990; - Lastly, Celia Reynolds covers the case of Shell UK Ltd v Persons Unknown [2024] EWHC 3130, the knotty issue of injunctions against “persons unknown”, and whether the Aarhus Convention is relevant to the Court’s assessment of interferences with the Convention rights of protestors, and the proportionality analysis in the exercise of the court’s equitable discretion to grant an injunction.
We hope this provides some food for thought and wish you all a happy, productive and prosperous 2025.