Breaking News: All Change for Planning Committees and Emergency Measures for London

Turns out that MHCLG didn’t just have a manic Monday. It is shaping up to be a very busy week indeed.

Hot on the heels of Monday’s launch of three new planning consultations, we now have another one, and this one is important.

The “Planning committee reform: draft regulations and guidance” consultation opens today and runs until 23 April 2026.

It has been published alongside the government’s response to the technical consultation on committee reform, which ran last year.

The consultation relates to the draft regulations and guidance for both:

• The much anticipated national scheme of delegation; and
• New restrictions on the size of planning committees

It does not deal with the implementation of mandatory member training, which is still under consideration. The draft regulations have also been published and are expected to come into effect on 30 September 2026, although that might change depending on the consultation responses.

National Scheme of Delegation

The proposed national scheme of delegation, once adopted, would replace the current system whereby each LPA in England sets their own rules on which planning applications go to committee, and which can be delegated to officers.

Under the consultation draft regulations, the new system would work as follows:

Once adopted, all local authorities in England would need to update their constitutions to align with the new national scheme of delegation (see Regs 4 and 5), which divides applications into two categories.

• Applications that must be determined by officers; and
• Applications that may be determined by Planning Committee – but only if it is really necessary.

Applications that must be determined by officers

The following types of planning application must be determined by officers and cannot be referred to committee.

Whilst the regulations adopt the DMPO definitions for “householder applications” and “minor commercial applications”, they introduce a new one for “minor residential applications”. This is defined as follows

for completeness, “excluded flat development” is defined as applications for change of use or to increase the number of flats in a building.

There is also a bespoke definition of “reserved matters phase application” which is going to be important. This is defined as:

Applications that may be determined by Planning Committee

The following types of planning application can be referred to planning committee for determination if (and only if) the application raises:

• one or more issues of economic, social or environmental significance to the local area; or
• one or more significant planning matters having regard to the development plan and any other material considerations.

There is also an ability to refer applications submitted by “linked persons” to committee. Linked persons are defined as:

Restriction on size of planning committees

This one is really straightforward. The size of planning committees is to be capped at 13 members.

If adopted as written, the national scheme of delegation should significantly reduce the number of applications going to planning committee. This should allow committees to focus on the applications that really matter – provided that the filtering requirements in the draft regulations are applied appropriately.

In which respect, the proposed draft guidance states:

Emergency Measures to boost housebuilding in London

If that were not enough, yesterday also saw the publication of the final set of emergency measures to boost house-building in London.

There were a lot of documents relating to this:

• The press release
• Letters from the Secretary of State to Councils, Housebuilders and RPs
• The consultation response on the original package of measure
• The policy note; and
• Secondary Legislation changing the Mayor of London’s call in powers, which come into effect on 11 May 2026

and this post is quite long enough, so I am not going to go into them in detail.

Instead, here is the summary from the Secretary of State’s letter to housebuilders:

“The package comprises:

1. A new time-limited planning route, enabling developers to secure permission without a viability assessment on private land where they commit to at least 20 per cent social and affordable housing, with providers able to apply for GLA grant to support social and affordable homes above the first 10 per cent of the total homes on the site. Certain elements of the proposed planning route have been adjusted. The route will now be open to applications submitted and validated by 31 March 2028, by which time the new London Plan is expected to have been adopted. The Late Stage gain-share mechanism has also been replaced by an Early Stage Review – aligning directly with the GLA’s current Fast Track Route – with no further reviews required beyond this. The Early Stage Review will be triggered where an agreed build out milestone is not met within a stipulated time period – with a default position comprising of a build out milestone of a first-floor slab to be achieved within 30 months starting from the grant of planning permission. Flexibility will also be allowed for boroughs and housebuilders to agree differently defined build out milestones and time periods for achieving this milestone – appropriate to the circumstances of the site and reflecting the imperative to incentivise starting construction and housing delivery. If triggered, the ESR will ensure greater levels of social and affordable housing are delivered if economic conditions improve. Full details are confirmed and set out in the Homes for London summary note and the Mayor of London’s Support for Housebuilding London Plan Guidance.

2. Temporary and targeted partial relief from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for eligible schemes, with higher levels of relief for schemes providing more than 20 per cent social and affordable housing. This emergency relief will now apply to eligible schemes commencing before 31 March 2030, with further simplified requirements and processes to access the relief and get schemes moving. The Government remains committed to the benefits of the CIL regime for delivery of local infrastructure over the long-term. We intend to consult on the draft CIL amending regulations as soon as possible in the Spring.

3. The removal of elements of London Plan Guidance that, as currently applied, can constrain density – including standards relating to dual aspect and units around the core, and amendments to cycle storage requirements. These measures signal a direction of travel. As the new London Plan is developed, the GLA will give active consideration to the effectiveness of continuing these measures, using this to inform emerging policy, together with the Government’s finalised proposals arising from the National Planning Policy Framework consultation.

4. Expanding the Mayor’s planning call-in powers – with the Government bringing forward secondary legislation immediately so new powers come into effect in May. This builds on wider action being taken through the English and Devolution Community Empowerment Bill, such as streamlined Mayoral Development Order powers, to give mayors the powers they need to accelerate housing delivery and economic growth.

5. An initial allocation of £324 million to establish a City Hall Developer Investment Fund, which will prioritise interventions on stalled sites that can deliver housing completions as soon as possible”.

This looks to be a more accessible and effective version of the scheme than that originally consulted on, but time will tell whether it is enough to overcome the real and significant viability issues currently facing development in the capital..

Fingers crossed!