News and Resources

Here is the skeleton of a presentation I am giving at the RTPI London Annual Summit 2019 on 20 November 2019. You’ll have to come along for the flesh, as it were. I just wanted to do a basic trawl of what has been happening over the past year in terms of: • Mayoral directions …

This is about Robert Jenrick’s 23 October 2019 announcement of the ‘most ambitious heritage preservation campaign for 40 years‘. Whilst we are in political lock-down, there is time to look at it in more detail and in particular at the concept of locally listed buildings, central to the campaign that Jenrick laid out as Communities …

Well I certainly tempted fate with the heading to my blog post A Helpful Case On The Scope Of Section 73 last November, which dealt with Sir Wyn Williams’ first instance ruling in Finney v Welsh Ministers. Tear up that blog post. The ruling now been reversed by the Court of Appeal in a very short …

Parliament will dissolve just after midnight on 6 November 2019, allowing the required 25 working days before a general election on 12 December. In accordance with the Prime Minister’s 28 October statement the new Parliament will first meet “before 23 December.” So we will have a period of “purdah” from 6 November to 12 December. …

My 13 July 2019 blog post Less Than Best Laid Plans: Political Pragmatism commented on the previous Secretary of State’s 18 June 2019 letter to PINS, which stressed the need for pragmatism on the part of local plan inspectors. MHCLG must be careful not to shoot the messenger. Inspectors are continuing to point out basic flaws …

Two reasons not to press print: It’s long. The Environment Bill, which had its First Reading on 15 October 2019, comprises 232 pages. It has 130 sections and 20 schedules. If you want a quicker read, the Explanatory Notes are only 212 pages. Its shelf life may be short. Of course, we are likely to …

What a mess in South Oxfordshire, with the council now on a collision course with MHCLG over its submitted local plan, which it would dearly love to withdraw. One of the last things that the previous Conservative administration at South Oxfordshire District Council did before purdah kicked in ahead of the May 2019 local elections …

Mike Best at Turley made the point most concisely in a tweet this week: Two themes to this blog post: ⁃ the, partly inconsistent, changes to the planning system announced over the last week; ⁃ the difficulty of sieving out from this a lot more media chaff. The pre Conservative party conference briefings in relation …

There appears to be a new domestic political urgency about climate change (to the extent that there is space for anything other than the B word). After saying as little as possible about the politics, the focus of this blog post is on law, and specifically, climate change litigation, although as can be the case …

Lindblom LJ gave a short speech this week at drinks hosted by Cornerstone Barristers to mark the publication of Ashley Bowes’ A Practical Approach To Planning Law 14th edition. He made a nice joke about how many of the footnote references were to articles by one Dr Ashley Bowes. No doubt Lindblom LJ’s judgment in …