The government’s proposal for new local planning procedures states, among other things, that all household planning applications, no matter how big or intrusive, are to be decided by the council’s planning officers alone. This also applies for new blocks of flats if they will have less than 10 flats. It is unclear if there will even be any consultation period during which neighbours may object, as there will be no procedure where a certain number of objections against such applications will transfer them to the planning committee for decision.
Consultation response from the Kensington Society:
Removing councillors’ right to decide “Tire A” applications is unacceptable
As part of its commitment to “Get Britain building again”, and as a way to strengthen the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill (which is currently moving through parliament), the government wants to change the way councils manage planning applications. The reason for this is that the government has been convinced by property developers that the local planning committees are a major reason for building projects taking so long or never being realised. It has also been told that while the planning officers in the council’s planning departments are professionals who know when an application should be approved or rejected, the councillors are usually uneducated in planning law and are much to sensitive to local opinion (i.e. NIMBYism).
So, in December 2024, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced it would come up with new rules for how local planning should be done and on 28 May 2025 it announced an eight week consultation on those proposed rules as well as a plan for training planning committee members.
While better training of the planning committee councillors probably is a good thing, the new rules for how local planning applications are to be handled are much more questionable.
The current rules vary from council to council, which is one reason why the government want a more streamlined national approach. The basic rule for RBKC and many other councils is that, after preparation and consideration by the planning department, very large applications go automatically to the planning committee for decision, while all other applications are decided by the planning officers after the usual public consultation – unless the consultation results in three or more valid objections, in which case the application will be decided by the borough’s special planning applications committee. This also happens if a ward councillor specifically requests this.
The government’s plan is to in principle follow that setup: smaller applications (called Tier A) are decided by the planning officers, while larger ones (Tier B) are decided by the planning committee. Tier A is proposed to cover all applications from households, all new residential developments under 10 dwellings/flats and all minor commercial developments, while all other developments will fall under Tier B.
However, the proposed system seems to totally ignore the views of neighbours or local residents’ associations. There is no mentioning of consultations or possible transfer of decisions for “Tier A” applications from planning officers to a committee of councillors, nor is any special consideration mentioned for applications in conservation areas. The belief is that planning officers will know it all and never make any mistake.
The consultation closed on 23 July 2025 and the result is expected to be published towards the end of the year.
Obviously, the Kensington Society objects to this proposal, as it would remove the rights of councillors and members of the local community to have locally-controversial, finely-balanced cases decided in public, and has explained this in more detail in both a written statement of objection and in its response to the online consultation’s various questions.
By clicking the buttons below, you can read or download both.
Published 13/10/2025
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