Comment

National Infrastructure Strategy: Introducing greater planning flexibility for hospitals in England

In the context of the Prime Minister’s economic recovery plan to invest in and accelerate infrastructure, the HM Treasury has announced its plans to make it easier and faster to build social infrastructure.

The new National Infrastructure Strategy (NIS) (read our previous comment here), published on the 25 November 2020, sets out plans to amend the permitted development rights that apply to hospitals, schools and prisons and introduce a faster decision making process

At present, the Schedule 2, Part 7, Class M of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 (GDPO) allows hospitals and education institutions to carry out some very limited works to their estates without a planning permission. These rights are fairly restrictive. They only permit floorspace extensions to hospitals that are 25% of the existing footprint, or 100 sq m (whichever is lesser). This means they are generally only used for fairly minor developments, such as cycle storage facilities, shelters, etc.

The NIS suggests that the Government will substantially widen the scope of development that benefits from the permitted development rights. In particular, it states “this change will enable the extension of the footprint of facilities by 25% or 250 squares metres, whichever is larger”.

The change in wording to “whichever is larger” suggests that NHS Trusts and private hospitals could have the added flexibility to deliver larger capital projects without a planning application. For example, a 12,000 sq m (130,000 sq ft) hospital building could potentially be extended by up to 3,000 sq m (32,300 sq ft) under the 25% test.

Smaller capital projects on large hospital estates are rarely contentious, so there is a degree of common-sense to this proposal and it does have the potential to speed-up delivery of much needed social infrastructure, especially as we look to be more resilient in the future. However, the exact permitted development rights will undoubtedly be subject to specific exclusions and qualifications, and there could even be a requirement for some schemes to be subject to prior approval process, similar to that applied to other classes in the GDPO. Hence, the actual timesavings will remain to be seen.

Alongside the amended permitted development rights, the NIS has confirmed the Government’s intention to introduce a faster planning application process for more substantial hospital developments. It is suggested that new secondary legislation will encourage greater prioritisation of applications by local planning authorities, including a shorter timescales of 10 weeks for determination.

These changes are all part of the Government’s overarching ‘Project Speed’, which seeks to deliver Government’s public investment projects more strategically and efficiently. While the proposals will potentially speed-up the planning process for smaller capital projects (such as new Emergency Departments), we are doubtful that they are to have any substantial impact on major capital projects, such as the 40 new hospitals the Government has committed to in the Health Infrastructure Plan. These are complex projects; they take time to design, consult and deliver, and therefore will require bespoke strategies for planning, EIA and strategic communications.

We anticipate that further detailed announcements will follow in coming months and these should provide clarity and guidance. We will continue to monitor development and provide a further update in due course.

In the meantime, for more information or advice, please contact Peter Rowe in our Health Taskforce.

1 December 2020