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Improving the post-decision planning process to deliver better places in the West of England.

The scope of this project was to understand changes in design quality beyond the grant of either full or outline planning permission and to strengthen the role of local planning authorities in securing higher quality in the final build out of development schemes.


Housing Advisers Programme case study

2019/20 cohort


Executive summary

The planning process does not end at consent, yet there is very limited research in to post-consent processes and their impact on scheme delivery. The scope of this project was to understand changes in  design quality beyond the grant of either full or outline planning permission and to strengthen the role of local planning authorities in securing higher quality in the final build out of development schemes.

Project inputs

  • Budget: £48,000
  • Officer steering group (representative of 5 authorities, including DM, policy, urban design and enforcement)
  • Research team from UWE
  • Research participants
  • 25 in depth interviews
  • 4 case studies

Project outputs

  • Workshop with research team and five authorities (30 participants)
  • Research report
  • Recommendations

"The recommendations and depth of study has been great and goes beyond what I hoped might come out of this exercise."

- Workshop participant

Challenge and context

The failure to deliver consistently high-quality new development is an issue of national significance. The Housing Design Audit for England demonstrated that the design of new housing in the South West is overwhelmingly ‘poor’ or ‘mediocre’ and suggested that one in five housing developments nationally should have been refused planning permissions on design grounds (Place Alliance, 2020). The authorities in the West of England perceive that a contributing factor to this issue is a reduction in the quality of development between the grant of planning permission and delivery on the ground, such that the final built scheme can appear quite different to that contained within the original permission.

The National Planning Policy Framework recognises that the post-permission process has a role to play in supporting quality, and that local planning authorities should ensure the quality of approved development is not materially diminished between permission and completion, as a result of changes being made to the permitted scheme (NPPF, para 130). The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission also highlighted the need for planning authorities to improve the monitoring of wider outcomes of planning (eg wellbeing, health, natural recovery and beauty) and identified that post-decision processes can have a detrimental impact on development outcomes (Creating Space for Beauty, July 2019). However, there is limited guidance to demonstrate how this can be best achieved. 

This research project sought to shed light on the impact of the post consent processes on design quality including:

  • The discharge of planning conditions
  • Reserved matters
  • Non-material amendments (NMAs) and minor material amendments (MMAs)
  • Monitoring
  • Enforcement
  • Use of planning obligations / CIL 

The research does not to deny that pre-consent and the consent itself is still of pre-eminent importance, but seeks to offer deeper understanding in to what is an often overlooked part of the planning process and understand more about how planning authorities can strengthen their services to better support development quality post-consent.

Research approach

With funding from the LGA’s Housing Advisers Programme, the authorities commissioned a research team from the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments at the University of the West of England, Bristol to:

  1. undertake a systematic review to understand patterns or processes which lead to a decline in quality post-consent;
  2. provide an evidence base from which to strengthen the role of Unitary Authorities in ensuring quality development; and
  3. and draft a route-map for the West of England UAs to make improvements to the post-decision process and post-occupancy monitoring.

The findings from each stage of the research were compiled in a project report. The report is being finalised with publication anticipated in early 2021.

Key findings

The research was designed to ensure that practical learning points and recommendations could be shared with the West of England authorities, to support the delivery of service improvement.

Although not considered a fundamental determinant of overall design outcomes, the way in which post-consent planning processes unfold can allow for a significant decline in the overall quality of a delivered scheme.

The difference we made

This project is supporting the West of England authorities’ aspiration to achieve a culture of design excellence that will facilitate a step change in the quality of new development coming forward. The project helps us work towards this through the outcomes below.   

The research sets out a series of recommendations and their rationale for supporting design quality post-consent - intended to support the local authorities in considering how to improve post-consent practice.

These are grouped in five areas for action set out in the diagram below. The recommendations under each of these themes are inter-related, rather than sequential. Accordingly, whilst the recommendations are intended to be mutually reinforcing, taking action in one area is not dependent on another.

Diagram 1

See diagram 1 description

Project partners: West of England Combined Authority, UWE Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council. South Gloucestershire Council

Case study author: Celia Davis, Planning & Housing Officer, WECA, [email protected]