What Big Society and Localism could mean for planning

Almost immediately after its formation the Lib-Con coalition promised to “reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live”. In theory Big Society should mean that communities have stronger rights and more affordable remedies to counter contentious planning decisions.  If public right of planning appeal is increased it would not necessarily stop all new development, but developers will have to be more proactive in negotiating with local communities to ensure that development happens and much of this is being incentivised to be on brownfield sites.   The big change may therefore be an increase in the level of site risk assessment prior to the design phase, to ensure that if planning applications are going to be hard won, developers have confidence that they can deliver profitable projects.