Autumn Budget 2025: What is in it for Planning & Development

Happy Budget Day!

I have to admit, I haven’t particularly been looking forward to this one. In fact, I am feeling decidedly grinch-like. This is probably a little uncharitable, given that the Chancellor has already announced extra funding for training and recruiting planning officers. Nonetheless, the big day is finally here, and the sooner we get through it, the sooner I can distract myself with pre-Christmas consultations, sparkly lights and festive cheer. So, let’s crack on!

This post looks at:

• What the Budget actually said about Planning and Development;
• The Planning and Infrastructure Bill completing its journey through Parliament; and
• A Secretary of State approval for a brand new film studio in the Grey Belt!

The Budget – A pre-Christmas Cracker or a damp squib?

Well, this has been quite a dramatic morning hasn’t it. Between the OBR leaks, calls for inquiries and somewhat boisterous reactions in the commons chambers today, it has been a little hard to figure out precisely what has been going on.

Well, in terms of new measures relating to the planning system, there wasn’t all that much. The Budget report includes:

• £48 million of additional funding to boost capacity in the planning system. This funding will expand the Pathways to Planning Graduate Scheme and creating a new Planning Careers Hub to retain and retrain mid-career professionals with the aim of bringing 1,400 new recruits into the planning system by the end of the Parliament.
• Confirmation of integrated settlements for Mayoral Combined Authorities and details of the Mayoral Revolving Growth Fund; and
• Promises of transport and infrastructure funding, including a further £891 million for the Lower Thames Crossing and £4.2 million for the remediation of brownfield land in Port Talbot supporting the Harbourside Innovation District, aligned to the Celtic Freeport, helping to unlock further investment.

So all, in all, whilst I am not one to be ungrateful for additional resources for local planning authorities, this all feels like a bit of a damp squib. Indeed some might argue that the government should also have kept the funding for level 7 planning apprentices in place… given that was a proven route for getting new planners into the system.

There was some more interesting activity elsewhere on the government website, which included:

• the publication of a National Licensing Policy Framework for the hospitality and leisure sector – which applies only to business which serve alcohol or provide late night entertainment on site.
• confirmation that the Government will not be transitioning to a single rate of land fill tax by 2030.; and
• a consultation on whether all strategic authorities should be allowed to levy a tourist tax, as opposed to just Mayoral Authorities

I suspect for planning, the real excitement is yet to come, not least given recent hints from MHCLG that:

• The LURA reforms to the local plan system (hopefully including the enactment of s.73B)
• A consultation on a revised NPPF and (non-statutory) NDMPs
• The promised consultations on CIL Reforms and other measures to get house-building moving in London; and
• The government’s response to the working paper about changes to the definitions of major and non-major development

Could all be released in the very near future.

After all, the new plan system is intended to be up and running next year, and the consultations on London’s emergency measures were promised in November, so there isn’t that much time left… It looks like it will be yet another busy run up to Christmas for the MHCLG elves.

Planning & Infrastructure Bill to become the Planning & Infrastructure Act

In some good news for MHCLG, the Planning & Infrastructure Bill has made it through ping-pong is now on its way to Royal Assent – which is expected before the end of the year.

The final Lords debate is worth a read, but this is already getting a little long, so for those so inclined the Hansard report can be found here.

It does contain the following hints about what we can expect in the next few weeks, with Baroness Taylor of Stevenage stating:

“Our newly revised NPPF, which we will consult on before the end of the year, will provide even clearer policies to drive more certain decision-making, including on brownfield development. Our changes will signal a step change and make clear our ambitions to drive forward brownfield development. We expect changes to meet the objectives of the brownfield-first principle.“

Hollywood comes to the Green Belt – Secretary of State approves Marlow Film Studios

And finally, earlier today, before the Chancellor stood up at the dispatch box, we received the news that the Secretary of State had granted permission for Marlow Film Studios to be built in the Buckinghamshire green belt.

Interestingly, the Secretary of State disagreed with his Planning Inspector over whether the site constituted grey belt land – holding both that:

• the site does strongly contribute to green belt purposes a); and
• that the applicant had not shown a demonstrable unmet need for the development.

As such, instead of a grey-belt decision we received a classic green-belt analysis of whether very special circumstances existed sufficient to justify the grant of permission. The Secretary of State found that they did, stating that:

“ the economic benefits which carry very substantial weight. The BNG; public open space; new bus services; the Culture and Skills Academy and a community building (collectively); and the cafe, public art and off-site highway improvements (collectively), each carry significant weight. The PRoW improvements carry moderate weight, and the energy efficiency and tree canopy cover each carry limited weight”.

and

“The Secretary of State considers that in this case, the potential harm to the Green Belt
through inappropriateness, harm to purposes, harm to openness, and any other harm
resulting from the proposal, as identified in paragraph 53 above, is clearly outweighed by
other considerations and therefore there are VSCs which would justify this development
in the Green Belt.”

Which is good news for film lovers and supporters of the British film industry. I wonder if it is enough to get MHCLG a BAFTA…