Content

(Report of Director of Planning, Housing and
Environmental Health)
 
The report provided an update on the technical
consultations that had been published by the Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local Government, relating to improving
transparency and monitoring of building out of schemes and to
proposed reforms to Planning Committees, including their size and
which types of application could be considered by those
committees.
 
It was noted that the response to the
“Implementing measures to improve Build Out transparency:
Technical consultation”, attached at Annex 1, was submitted
under delegated powers of the Director of Planning, Housing and
Environmental Health, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Planning, due to the timescales involved.  The fact that the Government was considering
measures to ensure schemes were commenced and built out in a timely
manner was welcomed by Members, although it was recognised that
details around potential enforcement powers, in particular the
power to decline to determine applications if a developer had
failed to build out development authorised by an earlier planning
permission at a reasonable rate, were yet to be laid out by the
Government.
 
The proposed draft response to the
“Reform of Planning Committees: Technical Consultation”
was set out at Annex 2.  Members noted
that this consultation proposed reforms to the size of Planning
Committees, as well as suggesting that Members on a Planning
Committee would be required to have a certified programme of
training.  It also considered a
potential tiering scheme to determine which types of application
would be able to be considered by a Planning Committee, if meeting
certain locally set criteria, and which would be delegated to
officers. 
 
While appreciating the careful thought that
had been given and efforts made by the Director of Planning,
Housing and Environmental Health in drafting the response, Members
had a lengthy discussion around the proposed response to a number
of the questions in the consultation, and suggested strengthening
the answers in respect of Question 2 (highlighting the exception of
reserved matter approvals for both major and medium development
categories from Tier A category), Question 3 (clarifying that
Tonbridge and Malling should be in the ‘smaller Local
Planning Authority’ category and therefore medium residential
development should fall in Tier B), Question 5 (strengthening the
application of exceptional circumstances in line with a mandate to
be set by the Government to ensure consistency), Question 9
(highlighting confirmation of Tree Preservation Order should be
included in Tier B as per the Council’s existing policy),
Question 11 (accepting the application of exceptional circumstances
with enforcement decisions being delegated in the main under Tier
A), Question 12 (emphasising the objection of Members to the
restrictions being considered by the Government in respect of
setting a maximum number for planning committee members for
national consistency and removing the reference of the size of
planning committee being an acknowledged issue from the response)
and Question 15 (expanding the response to capture the different
views of Members on mandatory training).
 
In order to meet the deadline for submitting a
response to the “Reform of Planning Committees: Technical
consultation” by 23 July 2025, it was proposed by Councillor
Williams and seconded by Councillor King (Chair) that the draft
response be amended to reflect the comments made above and a final
version agreed in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning
and the Chair of the Housing and Planning Scrutiny Select Committee
before submission to the Government. 
This motion was supported unanimously by the Committee.
 
Following consideration by the Housing and
Planning Scrutiny Select Committee, the Cabinet Member for
Planning
 
RESOLVED: 
That
 

(1)         
the response to the “Implementing measures to improve Build
Out transparency: Technical consultation”, which was
submitted ahead of the 7 July 2025 deadline by the Director of
Planning, Housing & Environmental Health in consultation with
the Cabinet Member for Planning, be noted; and
 

(2)         
the draft response to the “Reform of Planning Committees:
Technical consultation”, as set out in Annex 2, be amended to
take into account comments made by Members at the Housing and
Planning Scrutiny Select Committee on 15 July 2025, in consultation
with the Cabinet Member for Planning and the Chair of the Housing
and Planning Scrutiny Select Committee, and the submission of a
revised final response by the 23 July 2025 deadline, be
approved.