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Executive Summary
The overall aim of the research was "to review the appropriateness of the planning permissions set out in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development)(Scotland) Order 1992 (the GPDO) and some of the related mechanisms and recommend changes to simplify it and bring it up to date" 1. This included the potential to deregulate householder developments under Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the GPDO, and establish appropriate new parameters for permitted development. Work on this aspect of the research is reported separately 2.
Research methods employed to achieve this aim comprised:
- a literature review of previous research on permitted development, including equivalent studies for England and Northern Ireland;
- a review of case law;
- an audit of the GPDO against government policies;
- a questionnaire sent to all Scottish planning authorities and over 100 other organizations, including statutory undertakers, government agencies and Non-departmental Public Bodies;
- follow-up interviews and workshops with selected officers of planning authorities and other organizations, to explore particular issues in depth;
- statistical analysis of data on:
- planning and related consents for the period 1997/98 to 2004/05;
- farm and forestry notifications and decisions, for the period 1997/98 to 2004/05;
- use of Article 4 Directions.
The reach and complexity of the GPDO has grown since its introduction in 1992. Permitted development is a consequence of a very wide definition of development in the Town and Country Planning Acts. Some of the difficulties of operation of permitted development occur at the boundary between permitted development and development requiring formal consent.
Whilst the GPDO was not conceived to contribute to some of today's policy aims, it is concerned with minor development. Current general and specific limitations on permitted development rights ( PDR) greatly restrict the threat that minor development poses to the achievement of policy aims, even through cumulative development.
Recommendations are founded on improving the clarity, simplicity, ease of understanding, consistency and currency of the GPDO. They include:
- making the GPDO easier to understand, interpret and use, including a new format for the presentation of PDR, easy-read and web-based versions in plain English, and separate user guidance;
- simplifying PDR as far as possible, reducing the uncertainties associated with interpretation of criteria and terminology, reducing the need for prior approval by the planning authority, and reducing the number of Parts of the GPDO from 25 to 20;
- improving consistency across Classes where justified by circumstances ( e.g. in relation to permitted development within designated areas)
- resolving anomalies about private ways by consolidating all PDR for private ways into one comprehensive Class;
- clarifying permitted development for agricultural operations, and the PDR available to statutory undertakers;
- extending PDR for industrial and warehouse development;
- introducing new PDR for micro-generation equipment and development ancillary to waste management operations;
- minor reforms to the other Parts of the Order.
A key difficulty with understanding and interpreting permitted development rights ( PDR) is that the GPDO easily becomes out of date as amendments are made. This builds in risk of decisions being made by developers and planning authorities based on out of date understanding of the Order. Recommendations seek to maintain the currency of the GPDO, either by:
- replacing the current GPDO with separate Orders for specified categories of minor development, each having the status of a General Development Order; or
- issuing the GPDO in a loose-leaf format or as a series of folders.
Finally, the GPDO should become a positive mechanism for linking deregulation with amenity and design quality through:
- specification of national standards for minor development,
- supported by up-to-date local design guidance by planning authorities.
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