Building certainty and demolishing guesswork
The Government is consulting on a simplification of the listed building consent regime. Matt Gilks examines the key proposals.
The Government is discussing the implementation of a number of changes to simplify the listed building consent regime. These changes will validate the commitments made in the Government’s response to the ‘Penfold Review of Non-Planning Consents’ of November 2011.
The commitments made were given statutory force in amendments to the Planning Act 1990 by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. Each reform deals with a topic which has, for some time, frustrated individual property owners and surveyors who maintain listed buildings.
Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement
This is an agreement between an owner and local planning authority designed to allow listed building consent to be granted in advance. This can include a series of alterations or extensions of specified listed buildings. Other parties such as English Heritage may also become parties to the agreement.
The agreement should allow a coordinated series of actions without the requirement for a number of formal consent applications, which can be burdensome. A typical agreement will be suitable for repetitive and predictable works. Negotiations on the scope of the agreement will be necessary from the outset and if the consents granted by the agreement are too restrictive it will be of little use and time may be wasted.
Local Listed Building Consent Orders
Orders granting listed building consent to a series of buildings within the administrative area of an individual local planning authority will identify where a formal application for consent is not needed. For example, a large estate including a number of listed buildings which require upgrading.
Local heritage interest groups should be active with regards to the implications of such orders – which are likely to allow works to a number of properties for a long period of time. For example, it is not impossible to foresee an order being used to allow solar panels to be fitted on listed buildings in limited circumstances.
Certificates of Lawfulness of Proposed Works
The most welcome development is the ability for the land owner of a listed building to apply to the local planning authority for confirmation that planned alterations and extensions do not need listed building consent. This should limit the endless anxiety about whether very minor alterations require listed building consent. A certificate must be granted before the works begin.
National listed building consent orders
This is a more extensive consent order which would have to be agreed in Parliament. It would deal with a listed building consent for works across a number of buildings that are managed as part of a national portfolio. The Government is currently working with the Canal and River Trust on the precise form of an Order.
The importance of record keeping
The proposals are all very helpful simplifications to the listed building consent system. The current consultation aims to fill out that structure with draft regulations. Nevertheless, building owners and managers should not forget to utilise such relaxations wisely.
Good record keeping is essential. In all cases where the building concerned is going to be let or sold, or where the building has a particularly sensitive history, it will not be enough to simply refer to the existence of an order, agreement or certificate. It must be possible to identify the extent to which individual works were within the scope of the consent at the time they were carried out. This is because disputes may arise as to the timing of the works, or the correct interpretation of the order or certificate. The extent of the authorised works to a listed building may become problematic years after the works themselves are carried out.
Responses to the Government consultation Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act: Secondary Legislation to accompany the Heritage Provisions: A Consultation can be made through the consultation page, using the online response form or via email to the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
Matt Gilks is a Planning Solicitor at Dutton Gregory LLP. He can be contaced on 01962 844333.