Planning Applications on Social Media

UK Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, has said local councils should use social media channels to publicise planning applications.  This new announcement was made as part of changes being introduced to ‘radically restart’ the construction industry.

As of Wednesday, (May 13^th, 2020) local governments will not have to publicise planning applications through local newspapers, site notices, or leaflets under temporary changes introduced in order to help development work resume.

Other extra measures which are being introduced include allowing construction sites to operate for longer hours, up to 9pm, and contractors to stagger worker hours in order to reduce the amount of people who are working on-site at any one time. The UK Government also suggested that some projects could move to 24-hour working in a bid to claw back the time lost during the Coronavirus outbreak.

When looking at planning, authorities will also be required to ‘take reasonable steps’ in order to ensure those who have an interest in proposed schemes are told where they can view the application.

Latest Government guidance also states that these steps might include ‘use of social media and communication by electronic means’ and added that they must be proportionate to the scale and impact of the development.

Councils also have temporary powers to defer Section 106 payments and disapply late payment interest from developers with a turnover of less than £45 million. Mr Jerrick also said that he expects all Planning Inspectorate hearings to go-ahead digitally, and also noted that he already had expanded permitted development and changed the rules on planning meetings since the beginning of lockdown.

In a Ministerial Statement at the House of Commons, Jerrick said the new changes were ‘going to get the same planning system going again and bring it into the digital future at the same time.’

Chief Executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Victoria Hills, said that the measures were positive and pragmatic steps in order to keep the development moving, but also called on the Government to extend planning permissions which were due to expire during the lockdown period. This is because planners fear a surge in re-applications could overwhelm their workload.

Ms Hills said: “We remain concerned that the issue of planning permissions due to expire during the lockdown has not yet been addressed. We have repeatedly called for this to be urgently addressed.”

Robert Jerrick also announced that the housing market will reopen with all professions involved including surveyors, estate agents and removal firms able to return to work.

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