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The implementation of the Householder Development Consents Review (HDCR) is a welcome initiative that will allow greater freedoms to homeowners and also free up planners to address the really big issues.
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), which represents over 20,000 planners, has been driving forward the project since Government launched the review at a joint RTPI event at the Sustainable Communities Summit in January 2005.
RTPI Secretary General, Robert Upton, who sits on the HDCR steering group, said: "The implementation of the review should be a big step forward for homeowners. It will increase the transparency and user-friendliness of the planning system for them, and so help them to improve their homes without falling foul of their neighbours.
"The RTPI also welcomes the emphasis on micro-generation as a key means of engaging renewable energy to tackle global climate change.
"Local planning authorities and developers alike will also appreciate the scope in the Review for freeing up valuable professional time and resources to concentrate on the bigger issues which need more professional input.”, Upton said. "Householder applications currently account for 55% of all planning applications, and a considerable part of appeals.”
Homeowners first, and often only, contact with planning is through the development control system. A householder consents regime has to mediate between the aspirations of homeowners to develop their property further whilst protecting their neighbours from any negative impacts – such as an invasion of privacy or reduction of sunlight. These protections will still exist under the new system but the new system will seek to assess the true impacts of proposed development as they affect individuals, neighbourhoods or the wider community,. It should thus be more proportionate and more easily understood .
In the light of the interim report of the Barker review of land-use planning, also launched on Tuesday 04 June, Upton went on to say: "The implementation of the HDCR is exactly the sort of necessary improvement that the RTPI has called for to make the operation of the planning system more efficient and more transparent, without tinkering with primary legislation.”
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Press release issued: July 5 2006
