But of course celebrity opposition to planning reforms is nothing new, as a note signed by former Beatle, George Harrison, reminds us. The note (see below), dated 1988 and recently “found in the back of a draw” by countryside lobby group the Campaign to Protect Rural England, warns that pressure to build thousands of homes across central Berkshire represents a “grave challenge to the future of our countryside and must be resisted”.

It concludes: “We the undersigned call upon the government to think again about their plans and to pledge themselves to keeping Berkshire beautiful.”

A spokesman for CRPE said that the note had been found during an office move. “It shows that a lot of these issues come around again and again,” he said.

UPDATE: The CPRE has kindly provided further details of the 1988 campaign, which aimed to make the government stand by a manifesto commitment to protect the countryside “for its own sake”. The full list of Berkshire celebrities to endorse the campaign in 1988 is as follows:

- George Harrison (and wife Olivia)
- Ernie Wise
- Terry Wogan
- Julian Pettifer (Broadcaster)
- Wendy Craig (Actress)
- Tim Brooke-Taylor (Comedian)
- Robert Hardy (Actor)
- Sir Terence Conran
- Michael Parkinson – who added a message to David Puttnam, CPRE President: “Dear David, Go get ‘em!. Best wishes, Mike.” and enclosed a cheque for £100
- Tom Stoppard
- Miriam Stoppard
- Billy Connelly (no autograph)
- Pamela Stephenson (no autograph)

The CPRE says that the TV personality Frank Bough also signed and appeared at a press conference with David Puttnam and Jenny Hanley (presenter of children’s TV show ‘Magpie’) to explain the contents of the Keep Berkshire Beautiful open letter to the then environment secretary Nicholas Ridley.

jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com Follow Jamie on Twitter at @J_J_Carpenter. Main image, copyright Apple Corps Ltd.

The 225sq metre home is to be located on an island in a stretch of the Thames that passes through Marlow, Buckinghamshire. According to the architects, the site is designated as Flood Zone 3b – classified as the functional floodplain – and is in a conservation area. The property will be set 10 metres from the river’s edge and will replace a dilapidated bungalow.

Speaking to PlanningBlog, Richard Coutts, director of Baca Architects, said that the house has been “designed like a pontoon in a marina”. It will rest on a concrete hull and will be sited within a wet dock, set between four permanent vertical guideposts to keep it in place. When flooding occurs, the dock will fill with water and the house will rise accordingly (see images, below right). “The home will rise out of its dock very infrequently,” said Coutts. “In the unlikely event of flooding, it rises to a higher level.”

Coutts said that the approach had advantages over other flood-resilient home designs, in particular elevated buildings. He said that in flood-prone New Orleans some homes have their ground floors elevated almost 2.5 metres above street level, with attempts to mitigate flood risk in some cases “trumping values of good urban design”. Amphibious homes, he said, engage better with the streetscape and create a better quality of life for their inhabitants.

According to Baca Architects, the planning process “took a bit more time than some applications, involving our team in extensive consultations and cooperation with the local authority”.

jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com Follow Jamie on Twitter at @J_J_Carpenter

Images by Baca Architects.

So far, in terms of the amount of national media coverage devoted to planning, 2012 has felt like something of a return to normality. But is that about to change? The last fortnight has seen the publication of a clutch of NPPF-related studies, some of which have received national media coverage. And the publication of the government’s response to the communities and local government select committee’s report into the NPPF, followed by the final version of the framework before the end of March 2012, are likely to prove to be flashpoints in the not too distant future.

I’ve used data from internet search engine Google to produce the graph below, which shows how often people have entered the term “NPPF” into the Google search engine over the past year (a figure of 100 on the graph denotes the highest volume of searches, 0 the lowest). There is obviously no authoritative way of measuring the size of a furore, or how long it lasts, but the findings from Google give us a clue as to the scale of public interest in the framework. It’s reasonably safe to assume that more newspaper headlines will spark more Google searches.

The graph, produced using figures from Google Insights for Search, shows a ripple of interest in the NPPF in May 2011, when a government-commissioned advisory group published a suggested draft of the NPPF.

According to Google’s figures, interest in the NPPF began to increase sharply in July 2011 when the government published the draft version of the document. Interest continued to rise through September and peaked in early October. After party conference season, the number of people entering the term “NPPF” into Google began to fall, reaching its lowest point at the turn of the year.

Since then, numbers of people searching for NPPF on Google has started to increase again. It’s impossible to give a definitive reason for this, but in the last few weeks there have been two NPPF-related studies published – one by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and one commissioned by the CPRE along with the National Trust and RSPB. Various interest groups continue to lobby for changes to the document (for example, Spear’s – a lifestyle magazine for the super-rich – said last week that a reform of the NPPF in relation to heritage protection is “both urgent and overwhelming”). And communities charity Civic Voice has launched a “final push” to “campaign for fair planning”. It is encouraging local civic society members to use its website to write to their local newspapers to warn that the reforms could “change the face of our local area forever”.

At present, the volume of Google searches for “NPPF” in early 2012 has yet to reach the heights of October 2011. But with the publication of the final version of the document just weeks away, don’t bet against another media storm. Time to batten down the hatches!

jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com. Follow Jamie on Twitter at @J_J_Carpenter

Examiner approves pan-London levy

The big CIL news to report in today’s CIL Watch update is that an independent examiner has backed London mayor Boris Johnson’s proposals to use a CIL to raise £300 million towards the cost of building the east-west Crossrail link. Johnson’s proposals group London’s boroughs into three charging bands, calculated using average house prices, with charges of £20, £35 or £50 per square metre.

Following the inspector’s backing, the charge is likely to come into force on 1 April. As Adam Pyrke, head of London planning at real estate firm Colliers International, points out in today’s issue of Planning, this means that planning applications submitted now stand a good chance of being subject to the levy as they are likely to be approved after 1 April.

In evidence to the examination, London boroughs claimed that the proposed mayoral CIL would imperil a string of high-profile regeneration projects across the capital. They still have concerns. Chris Roberts, executive member for economic development and infrastructure at umbrella body London Councils, said: “A fully funded Crossrail will benefit the whole of London but we’re concerned that the high level of the levy may jeopardise other developments, and the inspector’s report confirms this. Local projects may suffer as developers can’t commit as much to local infrastructure planning agreements because the levy makes them less viable.”

Examiner Keith Holland’s report acknowledges that the tariff may put some marginal schemes at risk. But it concludes: “The charge proposed by the mayor would represent a very small part of the overall cost of development and hence would not seriously threaten the economic viability of development across London.”

Two more councils close to CIL examinations

So far only four local authorities (Newark and Sherwood, Shropshire, Redbridge and Portsmouth) have had their CIL plans inspected by examiners. CIL Watch can reveal that two more councils will soon join them.

Huntingdonshire District Council submitted its CIL charging schedule for examination at the end of January and has appointed Nigel Payne as the independent examiner. The examination is due to start on 6 March.

At a meeting last week, the London Borough of Wandsworth’s executive resolved to instruct the director of environment and community services to submit the council’s amended CIL draft charging schedule for independent examination. The council has modified its CIL charging schedule to remove a proposed charge of £100 per square metre for office or retail development in locations outside of the Nine Elms regeneration area. A report to the council’s strategic planning and transportation overview and scrutiny committee says that the change will reduce the amount of CIL collected by around £500,000 per annum. But the report adds: “This amendment would ensure that development across the borough would not be put at serious risk, a key test at examination.”

Norfolk councils lower proposed charges to boost viability

A group of councils in Norfolk that are working together to prepare a joint CIL tariff have announced plans to reduce proposed residential charges by around 20 per cent in and around Norwich. In preliminary draft charging schedules, published last year by Norwich City Council and South Norfolk and Broadland district councils, a charge of £160 per square metre of residential floorspace was proposed for a zone covering Norwich and its surrounding area. The councils’ draft charging schedules, which went out for consultation this week, propose a revised charge of £115 per square metre of residential floorspace. The councils first revealed that they were considering plans to lower the proposed CIL rates before Christmas.

The three councils say that they intend to commit to an early review of CIL within two years of the adoption of the charging schedule, with a view to raising the rates to take account of market recovery.

Central Lancashire councils latest to publish joint CIL plans

A group of central Lancashire councils (South Ribble, Chorley and Preston) have published a joint preliminary draft charging schedule for consultation, becoming first local authorities in the North West to set out their CIL plans. The charging schedule proposes the following charges across all three local authority areas: £70 per square metre for residential; £160 per square metre for convenience retail; and £40 per square metre for retail warehouses. It proposes that non-residential institutional uses are exempt from the levy and seeks views on charges for all other uses, suggesting a charge of up to £10 per square metre. The consultation closes on 30 March. Other groups of councils working jointly to prepare CIL charges include the Greater Norwich Development Partnership (see above), the Black Country authorities of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, and the central Lincolnshire councils of Lincoln City, West Lindsey and South Kesteven.

Fears over error in CIL regulations

Concerns were raised that the CIL regulations contain an error at a recent CIL seminar organised by the Royal Town Planning Institute’s London branch. The error relates to regulation 40, which deals with the calculation of levy rates. Delegates told Steve Woolley, the head of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s CIL team, that the error affected how calculations take into account existing floorspace to be retained and/or demolished.

“Anyone who is enforcing a CIL at the moment will have this problem,” says Rob Krzyszowski, senior vice chair of RTPI London. “In some cases developers will be paying more or less than they should be.” He said that the Department for Communities and Local Government had acknowledged the problem and that it is likely that the regulations will be changed. However, Krzyszowski said that it could take some time for the regulations to be changed as this would require ministerial approval.

More food for thought for CIL Watchers…

Stewart Murray, leader of the London Borough of Redbridge – one of the first councils to begin charging CIL – is interviewed in today’s issue of Planning. He says that most developments in the borough will pay more under the new infrastructure levy, but it won’t harm viability.

Also writing in today’s Planning, editor Richard Garlick examines the impact of CIL on development viability. He concludes: “As long as town halls review their charging schedules regularly, there should be no threat of a long-term development drought induced by the CIL.”

Writing in Mortgage Strategy, Jason Orme takes a different view. He writes: “I haven’t met anyone in the industry who thinks it will help to see more homes being built and the general consensus is that the CIL is the last thing we need right now. So just when we need more houses from the current record lows, the likelihood is that we’ll be seeing even fewer homes built in 2012.”

Do you think CIL will hold back development? Join the debate by commenting below.

Follow Jamie Carpenter on Twitter at @J_J_Carpenter. Cake picture by Will Clayton.

According to Johnson, the Menta tower, given final approval by the London mayor in August last year, will “see 48 social rented homes demolished and replaced with a smaller number of affordable homes on a separate site, comprising only 10 per cent of the total homes in the development, and split in half between homes let at “affordable rents” that are higher than social rents and half sold on the shared ownership scheme”.

Menta’s first application for the site, which included plans for a string of four towers, with the tallest standing at 45 storeys, was withdrawn in 2009 after the London Borough of Croydon’s planning committee recommended refusal in part due to adverse visual impact.

Johnson added: “The mayor should never have waved this tower block through. It will loom over local residents, most of whom will be unable to afford a flat in the tower. Croydon will be left with a towering symbol of our failed housing policies that have priced so many out of buying or renting a secure, affordable home.

“Having lost two thirds of his affordable housing budget, the mayor will be faced with more and more planning applications for homes most Londoners can’t afford.”

Runners up this year were:

The Saatchi HQ, Camden

The London Borough of Camden voted to refuse permission for the plans in June last year after objections from locals, including Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson, who called them “a grotesque overdevelopment”.

“The mayor overturned the council’s decision. The council had rejected the application to demolish and replace this building on grounds including that only 27 per cent of homes are affordable, and that the small open space is a tenth of what is required and won’t cope with the extra demand”, Darren Johnson said.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Haringey

In September last year the mayor of London and Haringey Council confirmed a £17 million funding offer to help Tottenham Hotspur Football Club regenerate the public realm around a proposed redevelopment of its North London stadium.

Darren Johnson said: “The mayor offered £17m of public money to keep Spurs in Tottenham, freeing the club from any financial obligations through the section 106 agreement. While it is good to keep Spurs in the local area, wealthy football clubs should be made to contribute more to local housing, infrastructure and youth sports”.

Previous “winners” include Boris Johnson’s permission to double the number of flights at City Airport which won the 2010 award.

A spokesman for the mayor confirmed Boris would not be collecting the award.

Readers are welcome to nominate your own worst planning decisions awards.

In an interview that took place in the city, Cameron said the government was helping the private sector recover and added “that’s what the enterprise zone in Plymouth is all about”.

Plymouth City Council’s bid for enterprise zone status – which was turned down last August – proposed focusing on the marine, renewables, and advanced manufacturing industries.

The BBC reported that, according to Downing Street spokeswoman, Cameron’s comments were “a slip of the tongue”.

The spokeswoman added: “It was an error. I am sure that he is very aware of everything that’s going on in Plymouth.”

But Plymouth City Council’s Labour group leader Tudor Evans said: “It’s hugely embarrassing for Mr Cameron.

“It’s a real slap in the face for Plymouth that he does not seem to be aware that Plymouth lost out in its bid for enterprise zone status. Perhaps he can make it up to us, dig out the application and take another look.”

In August last year, the government announced the locations of 11 enterprise zones designed to boost economic growth, increasing the total number of planned zones to 22 from 21 due to the “strength of applications”.

The top 10 CIL charges

While most charges put forward so far have been in the region of £100 per square metre for residential development, some – particularly in London – have far exceeded this. Last week, the London of Borough of Merton published its initial CIL plans, which revealed that residential schemes in Wimbledon could face a charge of £385 per square metre. The news caused a stir on social networking site Twitter (see below – “astonishing sums” appears to be the verdict of the Twitterati).

With this in mind, CIL Watch has trawled through councils’ CIL documents to produce a list of the highest residential charges to be published to date (we think it’s comprehensive, but there’s always the possibility that a preliminary draft charging schedule or two may have slipped through the net). The top 10 is ranked by the CIL payments that developers would, under councils’ published plans, be required to make on an average-sized house * (we’ve used a figure of 76 square metres for an average house, based upon research published by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment in 2009).

The list is as follows:

1. £43,700 – Nine Elms area A (the London Borough of Wandsworth’s draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £575 per square metre for residential development in the riverside section of the Nine Elms area, which is earmarked for major regeneration, and pictured above. £575 per square metre multiplied by 76 is £43,700)

2. £29,260 – Wimbledon (the London Borough of Merton’s preliminary draft charging schedule, which goes out to consultation on Monday 30 January, proposes a charge of £385 per square metre for this leafy corner of south-west London)

3. £20,140 – Nine Elms area B (Wandsworth’s draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £265 per square metre for this part of the Nine Elms area).

4. £19,000 – Wandsworth (the London borough’s draft charging schedule sets out a charge of £250 per square metre for other areas within its boundaries, not including the Nine Elms district and Roehampton, which is exempt from the charge).

5. £16,036 – Poole – zone A (the Borough of Poole’s preliminary draft charging schedule, which is split into three zones, proposes a charge of £211 per square metre for a seafront section of the borough)

6. £15,200 – Brent (in its preliminary draft charging schedule, which was consulted on last year, the London Borough of Brent proposed a charge of £200 per square metre for residential development across the whole of the borough)

7. £12,768 - Poole – zone B (the Borough of Poole’s preliminary draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £168 per square metre in a zone stretching along the northern shoreline of Poole harbour)

8. £12,160 – Greater Norwich (the Greater Norwich Development Partnership, comprising Broadland District, Norwich City, and South Norfolk Councils, is preparing a joint CIL and has proposed a charge for residential development of between £135 and £160 per square metre. The higher charge would require a payment of £12,160 for an average home)

9. £11,400 – zone B, Wycombe (Wycombe District Council’s preliminary draft charging schedule, consulted on at the end of 2011, proposes a charge of £150 per square metre in part of the district)

10. £10,640 – Colliers Wood/Raynes Park (the London Borough of Merton’s preliminary draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £140 per square metre for these districts)

* A caveat to the above… these charges may not be representative of the full developer contributions that housebuilders may be required to make once levies are introduced. Affordable housing contributions may still be sought from developers on top of CIL – councils will still be able to use section 106 agreements to fund affordable homes. Developers in London also face additional CIL charges from April – the mayoral CIL to raise funds towards the Crossrail project will be charged on top of London boroughs’ own CIL tariffs. Another point to note is that CIL is only payable on net additional floorspace, that is, after the area of demolished buildings has been deducted.

*** This week’s CIL newsflash ***

- Steve Woolley, the leader of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s CIL team, is leaving, Planning revealed today. A DCLG spokeswoman told us: “Now that the implementation of CIL is under way and the Localism Act is in place, the CIL team is being restructured and Steve Woolley is leaving the department. A small team will continue to support implementation.”

- Planning consultancy Roger Tym & Partners has picked up three contracts to support local authorities who are working together to consider introducing CIL in their sub-regions.

- Huntingdonshire District Council has modified its draft charging schedule. It includes a revised CIL rate for health developments, such as health centres and GP surgeries. The local authority’s draft charging schedule had proposed a rate of £140 per square metre for this type of development. But the modified draft charging schedule proposes to slash this to £65 per square metre. A viability report carried out for the council by consultancy Drivers Jonas Deloitte said: “It is recognised that this type of development has been reliant upon the funding regime and that as the wider healthcare sector is currently undergoing a change in structure it is not yet known how development might take place in the future. The additional testing has demonstrated the sensitivity of the appraisal to the CIL rate and the recommended rate has been reduced to accord with the balance between setting the maximum achievable rate while ensuring the majority of development would not be prevented.”

Send your CIL news to jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com. Follow Jamie on Twitter at @J_J_Carpenter

Portsmouth on track to be next council to introduce CIL…

Portsmouth City Council is set to become the fourth local authority to introduce a CIL charge after an independent examiner found that its proposed charging schedule is sound. In a report, examiner David Hogger described the council’s approach as “pragmatic”. The report said: “The evidence suggests that, overall, residential, retail and employment development will remain viable across the city, if the charges are applied.”

John Slater, head of planning services at the council, said that the council would vote on whether to formally adopt CIL at a meeting next month. The council’s current thinking is that the charge will be implemented on 1 April, according to Slater. “It’s nice to get it through public examination,” he said.

Should Portsmouth begin charging the tariff on 1 April, the council is likely to be only the fourth to have a CIL charge in operation. So far only Newark and Sherwood (which began charging last year) and Shropshire and the London Borough of Redbridge (which began charging on 1 January) have introduced CIL.

The first signs emerge of how CIL might work in practice…

With CIL charges now in force in three local authorities, CIL Watch has been trawling through council planning documents to try to find out whether any developers have been affected.

The first project of note that we came across was an outline application for a commercial scheme in Nottinghamshire, which is eligible to pay CIL, according to Newark and Sherwood planning committee papers. Newark and Sherwood’s CIL charging schedule stipulates that industrial developments in the Newark Growth Point must pay a levy of £20 per square metre. This means that the project, to build three commercial buildings on a freight yard in Newark-on-Trent – which would result in an increase in net additional floorspace of 325 square metres – faces a CIL charge of £6,500. The scheme has been recommended for approval and is likely to be considered at a planning meeting on 14 February (a decision was deferred earlier this month).

A spokesman for Newark and Sherwood District Council said that there are currently nine applications in the system which could potentially generate a CIL payment, depending on whether or not they are approved.

Meanwhile, over in Shropshire, a small housing development in Bridgnorth will also trigger a CIL payment. The project, to build four two-bed properties, was granted full planning permission earlier this month. There are no details in the planning papers as to what level of CIL charge the project will be required to pay, but Shropshire’s charging schedule stipulates a charge of £40 per square metre for developments in market towns and key centres.

Plymouth revises proposed levy rates to aid viability…

Plymouth City Council is the latest local authority to reduce its proposed CIL rates in response to concerns over viability. Plymouth was selected as a CIL frontrunner in 2011, and released its preliminary draft charging schedule in November.

 Next Tuesday (17 January) the council is set to approve its draft charging schedule, which will see reductions in the proposed charges for small shops, small housing developments and high rise student accommodation.

This follows a move before Christmas by a group of councils in Norfolk to set their CIL rates at a level below those first put forward.

Frontrunner progress update…

Before Christmas, the Planning Advisory Service published a useful update on the progress of the councils selected as CIL frontrunners. You can read it here.

Latest CIL contract news…

Real estate adviser DTZ has recently completed CIL viability studies for New Forest District Council and the New Forest National Park Authority and has been advising Milton Keynes Council on the development of their CIL charging policy, advising on the assessment of residential development viability, and undertaking CIL viability analysis on non-residential development.
 
In addition, DTZ has also been advising the Leeds City Region Partnership on the potential impact of CIL across the area and the basis for a strategic approach to its implementation and provided joint advice to Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Council in connection with the development of the framework for CIL in area.

Send your CIL news to jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com.

Read earlier CIL Watch updates here.

You can let us know what you think of the proposals in our HS2 poll here.

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI): “The Government’s decision to give the go ahead for High Speed 2 raises the important question about how this kind of investment can be linked in planning for housing and jobs and to rebalancing our economy. To make the most of transport investment, and to minimise the disruption and negative impact, transport decisions need to take account of the big picture and be allied with complimentary and remedial measures.

“The RTPI believes that spatial planning at a national level can provide the much needed overview of social, environmental and economic considerations which would enable Government to better judge the need and effect of transport schemes. Crucially, spatial planning also has the ability to unlock growth by providing businesses and local communities with the information they need to make well informed decisions.

“The proper planning of high speed rail links could be the catalyst for the kind of spatial dimension which the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) lacks, and which the RTPI and the recent Select Committee report on the NPPF asks for.

“The RTPI welcomed the Government’s decision to consider the long term infrastructure needs of the country in the National Infrastructure Plan, and welcomes in principle serious attempts to deal with the long term transport needs of the country in a manner which takes account of climate change. The Institute does not comment on individual planning cases, and therefore has no comment on the choice of route for High Speed 2″.

Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) chief executive Shaun Spiers said: “We are pleased the Government has shown its commitment to Britain’s railways while being sensitive to the impact that HS2 will have on communities and the countryside.

“It appears that Ministers really have engaged with the consultation responses.  So we welcome the changes that have been announced, notably the further tunnelling in the Chilterns and alterations to the route to avoid important heritage sites. Justine Greening is right that in delivering this important scheme we must safeguard the natural environment and our beautiful countryside.

“Today’s announcement is just one step in a very long process. There is still much more work to be done.  The route proposed today requires detailed study and it is likely that further changes will need to be made.  In particular, CPRE would like to see flexibility on the maximum design speed to allow more sensitive routing with greater curvature of the track. This will allow for necessary alterations following further local consultation.

“But the Government deserves congratulation for showing commitment to the future of our railways and to addressing regional economic imbalances, rather than concentrating development in the south east.  We are particularly pleased that this appears to have been a genuine consultation and that legitimate concerns about the likely impact of HS2 on the landscape have been heard.

“CPRE has branches and member parish councils across the country and we will continue to engage closely with the Government and HS2 Ltd to ensure that the new railway is as environmentally sensitive and beneficial to local communities as possible.”

Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) UK Head of Policy Jeremy Blackburn: “RICS supports the development of high speed rail and welcomes the government’s commitment to deliver the HS2 scheme in England. It has huge potential to contribute to economic growth, as well as lowering carbon emissions and expanding the capacity and speed of the UK’s transport network. However, the UK still seriously lags behind other countries which already have well developed high speed rail networks in place.

“The impact of HS2 on communities along the route is a critical issue and every practical step must be taken to minimise disruption and negative impacts. Adequate compensation procedures must be in place for those affected by the line and RICS is willing to work with the Government to advice on dispute resolution and compulsory purchase issues.

“High speed rail should be used to support economic growth and recovery by linking major economic centres for trade and investment, and effectively integrated with existing transport networks including airports to offer an alternative to short haul flights.

“Capacity freed up on the existing rail network must be used to full advantage for both passenger and freight services to ensure the wider benefits of investment are fully realised. We hope DfT’s consultation on major networks will be able to give an insight into the government plans to do this.

“Major public infrastructure schemes, such as HS2, require state-of-the-art project, carbon and cost management techniques to ensure optimum value for money and accountability. Through the use of new procurement models, information modelling and data benchmarking, RICS believes that prior investment in the relevant techniques and skills will ensure project success.”

National Trust director-general Dame Fiona Reynolds said: “We are pleased that Government has responded to local concerns over HS2 by promising a longer tunnel to protect the Chilterns Area of Outstanding National Beauty.

“However, we are disappointed that a tunnel at Hartwell House has not been included in the changes, given its international significance.

“This would be hugely beneficial both for the residents of Aylesbury and Hartwell, and would also protect the Grade I listed Hartwell House and its Grade II* Park and Garden. We hope to see this omission corrected as a result of the full environmental impact assessment which has not yet been completed. We will also be assessing the impact on Hartwell of lowering the line past Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville.”

The Country Land & Business Association (CLA) said the government’s decision must include reform of compulsory purchase laws to “give fair compensation to owners of homes, land and businesses along the route”. CLA president Harry Cotterell said: “We are launching this campaign because current compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) do not provide adequate protection for property owners when the State has to acquire private land or property without consent for a project such as HS2.

“Much of the work on reform has been done by previous governments but has not been implemented. Instead, they have offered a mere 10 percent extra in compensation to those affected by major infrastructure projects, and failing to fix the unfairness of CPO procedures or take steps to address blight to land and properties.”

Cotterell said the Association was urging the transport secretary to order an immediate and comprehensive review of compulsory purchase law for all private acquisitions and to commit to including legally binding provisions in the Act required for developing the HS2 line.

He said CLA lobbying on this issue had already helped persuade Government to promise more mitigation measures in HS2 including a £500million tunnel for part of the line.

The CLA President added: “A fair compensation package must include a duty of care, compensation for early access and a Bond Scheme to address blight. It is also good for the developer in the long run because fair compensation tends to reduce public opposition to projects.

“An independent assessor is needed for people affected by HS2 to ensure the acquisition and construction is conducted fairly.”

Warwickshire County Council Deputy Leader Cllr Bob Stevens said: “We are disappointed that the Transport Secretary has decided to go ahead with the HS2 scheme. It will have a devastating impact on the countryside and it will have little benefit for us. The county council remains committed to protecting Warwickshire’s heritage, environment and communities.

“We based our strong opposition to the scheme on the fact that it presents a flawed business case and offers poor value for money to the taxpayer. It is an expensive project which we believe will have only a very limited impact on the regional economy and certainly nowhere near as substantial as estimated in some quarters. There will also be unquantifiable hidden costs to the local authority.

“Now that HS2 is to proceed, we must ensure that the interests of Warwickshire residents are best served. In the immediate future, we will continue to work with the 51M Group to put forward the county’s case against this scheme.”

Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Director-General John Cridland said: “The Government’s green light for high speed rail is welcome.

“Without new capacity, by the 2020s the main West coast line would be gummed up, and rail freight would be likely to be squeezed out. We are right to plan for the infrastructure which the next generation will need, and the biggest prize will come from phase two – the link with the North. This will help to spread the benefits of future economic growth across the country.”

Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) HS2 Expert Panel chair Steve Hayter, said: “We agree that the opportunity should be taken to invest in a new railway that is fit for the 21st century – significantly increasing capacity, strengthening connectivity between our city-regions and boosting the UK economy in the long term. The time to invest is now and we endorse the Government’s strategy.

“Going forwards, a robust and effective high speed railway that achieves the environmental and economic aims must have the very strongest commitment and support, both politically and financially. Government should also now develop an integrated transport policy that serves the nation’s future transport needs – HS2 in itself can only form part of that plan and ideally should not be developed in isolation.”

Commenting on the decision to tunnel, Hayter added: “Government’s willingness to exploring different engineering options to minimise the impact on those communities affected must be welcomed. Tunnelling on this scale is a proven, effective engineering solution with many advantages. Engineers will now stand ready to do what they do best – overcoming any challenges and ensuring the project succeeds.”

1. Thatcher told to abandon Liverpool to ‘managed decline’

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was urged to abandon Liverpool to “managed decline” by her chancellor, according to newly-released National Archives files made available under the 30-year rule. The documents revealed cabinet discussions following the 1981 Toxteth riots. But Lord Howe, the former chancellor, has said that his letter was misunderstood.

The revelation prompted much discussion about regional policy. In an editorial, the Observer said that 30 years on, the “problem of how to coax declining regions back to life remains acute”. And in a new blog, Regen.net economic development blogger David Marlow says: “Beyond the controversial emotive terminology, what is most striking is development and regeneration’s enduring struggles with the relative balance between investing in success and tackling deprivation; and that tackling deprivation still needs to present a compelling case for interventions sustaining better futures as opposed to making present poverty bearable.”

2. MPs urge ministers to hold second NPPF consultation

The government’s draft National Planning Policy Framework requires ‘significant changes’ and the government should hold a second consultation into the proposed reforms, according to a report by MPs.

The report, published in the week before Christmas by the Communities and Local Government select committee, welcomes the government’s aspiration to make the planning system simpler and more accessible by reducing the amount of planning legislation to a single document. However, it says the document, as currently drafted, contains a weighting towards economic growth that risks allowing unsustainable development.

3. New DCLG director-general to oversee planning reforms

The Department for Communities and Local Government has appointed Peter Schofield as director-general for neighbourhoods. According to the DCLG, Schofield’s responsibilities will include housing, planning and regeneration. “He will take a lead role in implementing the housing strategy, major reforms in the planning system and delivering local economic growth,” a statement said. Schofield joins the DCLG from the Treasury, where he was director of the enterprise and growth unit.

4. Government launches private rented review

Housing minister Grant Shapps confirmed in the week before Christmas that Sir Adrian Montague will lead a review of barriers to investment in rented homes. The Department for Communities and Local Government said that the review would “examine how best to encourage greater investment in rental properties – helping support the rapid growth of the private rented sector by increasing the supply of affordable homes”.

5. High Court rules solar subsidy cut unlawful

Campaign group Friends of the Earth and two solar energy firms have won a legal challenge against government plans to reduce the rate of subsidy available under the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme for solar energy installations.

A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) consultation document issued in October proposed to cut the FiT rate from 43.3p to 21p per kilowatt-hour for the smallest band of solar installations. The claimants argued that DECC’s decision to cut rates from 11 December – almost two weeks before the consultation ends on 23 December – was unlawful. In the week before Christmas the High Court agreed that the proposals are unlawful.

6. Local finance bill to pave wave for Tax Increment Financing

The week before Christmas also saw the government publish its Local Government Finance Bill. The bill will introduce the Tax Increment Financing mechanism, which allows public bodies to borrow money to fund the infrastructure required to get a project off the ground against the anticipated uplift in business rates expected from that development. In a statement, Pickles said the bill would “provide local authorities with the framework to implement Tax Increment Financing”.

7. Get Britain Building fund guidance issued

Housing and regeneration quango the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) issued detailed guidance before Christmas for developers wishing to apply for the new £420 million Get Britain Building programme. The programme, unveiled in November as part of the Government’s housing strategy and managed by the HCA, is intended to enable work to start on stalled sites with planning permission. The quango says that the programme will unlock up to 16,000 new homes by December 2014.

8. Scottish wind farms win approval

Two wind farms which could power nearly 100,000 homes in the north of Scotland have been approved by the Scottish government’s energy minister. Fergus Ewing gave the green light to the 59-turbine 177MW Dorenell wind farm on the Glenfiddich estate, near Dufftown, Moray. He also granted permission for a six-turbine, 21 MW extension to the 104 MW Muaitheabhal wind farm in Lewis.

9. IPC accepts two more applications for examination

Two more major project applications, both in Lancashire, have been accepted for examination later this year by the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC). The commission has decided that the pre-application consultation procedures set out in the Planning Act 2008 were correctly followed for Halite Energy’s gas storage facility in the Preesall Saltfield. It has also accepted Lancashire County Council’s development consent application for a five-kilometre road between Torrisholme, near Morecambe, and junction 34 of the M6.

10. Planners recognised in New Year’s honours list

Scotland’s chief planner and a past president of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) were among the key figures from the planning and regeneration sectors to feature in the New Year Honours List 2012.

Click here to view PlanningResource.co.uk’s 10 most popular stories of 2011.

jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com. Follow Jamie on Twitter at @J_J_Carpenter