In a landmark judgement the Court of Appeal has ruled that planning permission is now required to demolish a building. Further, where that demolition is likely to have significant effects on the environment an Environmental Impact Assessment will also be required.

If you are considering a scheme where it is proposed to carry out demolition in advance of obtaining planning permission for redevelopment then this decision will affect you.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for advice or if you have any queries regarding the implications of this ruling.

A briefing service, advising clients of the implications of changes in planning for their land and property portfolios

We can provide individual clients with a regular briefing service on the implications for their land and property portfolios of changes in planning legislation and of changes in planning policy at the both the national and local levels.

The service is tailored to the specific land and property interests of each client. It provides feedback to the client on the implications for the client’s portfolio of all alterations to policy made by the relevant local planning authority as and when they are introduced.

At ‘The Planning Group Ltd’ we have people with the skills and experience in all aspects of the planning system to provide our clients with comprehensive briefings on the implications for their property portfolios of new and emerging policy. We can then go on to work in partnership with our clients to devise strategies which maximise their prospects for securing beneficial planning consents.

This service is particularly valuable at this time of constant change in the planning system. Most local planning authorities are still producing the various plans and policy statements that will combine to form their Local Development Frameworks. And the Government’s “Localism Bill” will lead to substantial changes to the planning system nationally over the next few years, with significant implications for developers and property owners.

The best way to contact is via telephone or email – all of which can be found on the contact page.

The process for minor applications usually lasts for around 8 weeks from submission date. For a major application the standard is around 13 weeks. A major application being designated as over 10 dwellings or over 1 hectare in size.

Yes, due to semi resent legislation, demolition work does require planning permission.

We can provide our clients with an authoritative initial opinion on the chances of getting planning permission for a specified development proposal.

We have people with the experience and expertise to advise our clients on the likelihood of gaining consent before they spend time and incur expenditure on negotiating terms for acquisition, engaging architects and commissioning specialist studies. Many local planning authorities now charge developers for pre-application meetings. Our service can save clients these costs if the scheme has little prospect of gaining consent.

We use a tailored range of planning skills to provide a speedy assessment of the prospects of permission being granted for proposals on sites our clients already own or are considering acquiring. In reaching our assessment, we consider the scheme and the site in relation to:

– National planning policies
– Local policies in the relevant parts of the Development Plan
– Landscape designations
– Development control criteria and design considerations
– Highways access, public transport and parking
– Drainage and flood risk
– Ecology, wildlife and tree cover
– Ground condition and contamination

Increasingly, councils require more and more information from applicants. Often, the list of requirements grows during the pre-application period, but with no guarantee that permission will ultimately be granted. Our service enables our clients to weigh up the costs of undertaking this work in relation to the likelihood of gaining planning consent.