Planning Reform Update: National Scheme of Delegation

Reform to the planning system comes into effect on 31 October, as the National Scheme of Delegation becomes mandatory.

The National Scheme of Delegation will divide planning applications in England into two categories, Schedule 1 and Schedule 2, with many applications no longer having a route to planning committee.

“This reform seeks to provide greater clarity and consistency around the role of planning committees in decision-making, essentially setting a higher bar for planning applications to be decided by committee,” says our associate director, Aaron Henecke. “For the most part, the default position going forwards will be a delegated decision at officer level with no or limited risk of planning committee. Instead, planning committee will be reserved for Schedule 2 applications as an exception, and only where it is agreed by the Chief Planning Officer and the Committee Chair that an application raises significant issues or planning matters.

“On the one hand, the reform will provide more certainty around the determination and outcome of planning applications, particularly where a scheme benefits from positive pre-application advice and support from Officers. Gone is the risk of committee referral due purely to the number of objections or because of a ward councillor call-in.

“On the other hand, there remains some scope for interpretation by local authorities, particularly around the types of developments or scale of impacts that may present ‘significant’ local issues, thereby opening the door to a committee referral. We’re having mixed conversations with Officers about the roll out, including the role of the statutory ‘gateway test’ on larger applications, so it’ll take some time to understand the full implications for ongoing and future planning applications.

“For developers, the Scheme’s biggest impact is that policy-compliant proposals should be de-risked and accelerated. Therefore, building trust and support from Officers, including through a positive pre-application process, is now more important than ever.

“We’ve summarised the headlines from Schedule 1 and 2 here, but get in touch for a more detailed breakdown, including how these changes affect specific sites,” adds Aaron.