Our focus remains on our clients and providing the right advice at the right cost, and with two shiny new offices in prime locations, things are only going to get better!

Our new office details for both offices can be found on our ‘Contact Us’ page, with our new Newcastle office details also listed below:

Churchill House

12 Mosley Street

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 1DE

Tel: 0191 230 8085

Fax: 0191 261 0200

Whilst some empty office premises in town and city centres may be suitable for such a change and may even result in desirable living space, other uses and their associated operations could have serious impact upon residential amenity, particularly in terms of smells and noise generated; not many people would wish to live next-door to a heavy industrial use or chemical plant.

To prevent conflicts between businesses and residents most industrial and distribution businesses are located outside of urban areas away from all residential development and the shops and services that support them. By allowing the change of use of premises located out of urban areas, surely this would conflict with the objectives of sustainable development; another key aim of the Budget’s ‘Plan For Growth’ document. The proposals could lead to isolated communities with no access to public transport, schools or other essential facilities.

Whilst residential land supply is an issue, the biggest problem facing the housing market at present is the lack of mortgage availability for first-time buyers and the impact this has on the house buying ‘chain’.  There is actually no shortage of housing available to buy due to this and as such the proposed measures announced by Mr Osborne may have little effect.

The piecemeal occupancy of commercial premises for housing purposes will not play a major part in increasing housing supply on a large scale. The proposed permitted change seems narrow minded and is not likely to address a key issue in the short-term.

Another thing that seems not to have been considered is the future impact such a move could have on employment land supply. As the economy recovers, where are new businesses expected to locate if all premises have been converted into housing? Maybe to the countless part-built housing estates lying empty across the country…

Whilst the announcements made in the Budget can only be seen as positive for businesses and developers, it seems a rather unashamed swing away from the principles of the Localism Agenda, which seek to hand more power to local communities.

Under the provisions of the Budget and its accompanying growth strategy document, firms will be able to develop neighbourhood plans, theoretically meaning that businesses should be able to develop and implement local planning frameworks. However, the Localism Agenda seeks to hand the same power to local communities. It is highly unlikely that any two neighbourhood plans; one prepared by the local community and one by local businesses; will be striving for the same goals. How the differences are to be reconciled is anybody’s guess.

There was also the announcement that the answer to development and growth should be ‘yes’ wherever possible. Whilst this is welcome, this surely should always be the case both in times of boom and bust, and everywhere in-between. Businesses have always being saying ‘yes’ to development, whereas local communities invariably say ‘no - not in my back yard’. Dishing out equal power to business and communities will undoubtedly result in stagnation. Perhaps Mr Osborne should learn Newton’s Third Law?

With Eric Pickles being told by the High Court in November last year that his decision to abolish Regional Spatial Strategies was unlawful, will the measures set out in the Budget end up to be another case of ill-informed ‘planning by headlines’? Let us hope not for the sake of the economy, but only time will tell…

The answer you get to these questions will very much depend on who you ask, as at present it is very unclear as to what the Government’s ‘Localism Agenda’ actually entails.  Regional Government Offices have already been abolished and their Regional Spatial Strategies with them, but proposals for Local Enterprise Partnerships to replace Regional Development Agencies are unclear and there appears to be no guidance or advice as to how these LEP’s should be formed and to a lesser extent what their role would be in driving regional and sub-regional policy. Other transition arrangements are vague and Local Authorities do not seem to understand the current framework any better than us in the private sector.

In its purest form the Governments concept of local planning is rooted in civic engagement and collaborative democracy in an attempt to change the system from being ‘top-down’ to being ‘bottom-up’. However, it is first necessary to define where exactly the ‘bottom’ lies. The Localism Agenda does not necessarily seek the devolution of power to the lowest common denominator; rather that powers are exercised in a prudent and responsible way at the appropriate level. To us at Big Tree Planning this means the local planning authority, perhaps with increased emphasis on community involvement at the pre application stage and added weight given to the views of local residents expressed.

Caution must be exercised by this approach however, as every proposal will invariably be met by an element of opposition, whatever its benefits to the wider community. Localism is not intended to halt the wider aspirations of the Government in terms of increased economic development, house building and the growth of UK business to aid the economy’s recovery.

The government’s intentions regarding greater community involvement and increased localism are unclear. However, it is relatively safe to say that local planning authorities will have greater responsibility under the coalition government, and it is likely that this will in turn trickle though to local communities.