The president of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has urged planners to remain calm and to support government advice amid growing concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak.
Sue Manns stressed that although the sector, along with the rest of the country, had found itself in an unprecedented and very serious situation, it was vitally important to support initiatives such as the relaxation of rules around deliveries as the country continues to cope with the impact of the virus.
The Institute has collated the most important announcements made in recent days and has called on planners to identify what more the government could be doing to help the planning sector.
Ms Manns said: “The RTPI continues to monitor the fast-moving situation and we are committed first and foremost to the health and safety of our members, volunteers and staff.
“As ever, in this time of crisis, planners stand ready to support the government in tackling the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) in any way we can, including relaxing regulations or enforcement where it is helpful to do so in order that our communities have access to vital supplies.
“We will also be looking at how we can best keep building and development going and how to ensure that after this crisis has receded we minimise any backlog of pending permissions. We continue to explore the opportunities afforded by digital technology to aid us in doing this.
“The RTPI will be writing to ministers in the coming weeks to make helpful suggestions.”
Last week the Planning Inspectorate published guidance on site visits, hearings, inquiries and events which can be found here.
The National Association for Local Councils (NALC) has also issued guidance and has said it is engaging with Smaller Authorities’ Audit Appointments (SAAA) about audit and with the MHCLG as a matter of urgency on a range of issues including holding statutory meetings and audit deadlines.
In addition to this:
- The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, has temporarily relaxed enforcement restrictions to allow overnight deliveries of food, sanitary and other essential products to supermarkets and other food retailers.
- The government has announced pubs, cafes and restaurants will now be able to do delivery and takeway services without any need to seek permission.
- Temporary emergency measures were announced in the budget to increase business rates retail discounts to 100% this year.
- Businesses eligible for small business rate relief or rural rate relief in England are entitled to a one-off cash grant of £10,000, which will be administered by local authorities (government guidance will be published shortly).
- Business rates holidays for small businesses have also been extended to cover at-risk sectors, alongside grants and loans (these measures are largely England only, with provision given of extra funding for the devolved regions to do similarly). These measures will help cut costs, and the cash grants will help with cash flow.
- The Chancellor announced he is planning to launch a new temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme delivered by the British Business Bank – this will be launched in a matter of weeks to give businesses access to bank lending and overdrafts.
- The government is extending the deadline for local government finance audits and will consider measures to ensure councils can hold committee meetings virtually (and be allowed to vote this way), as well as remove the requirement for their annual meeting to be held in person. The local elections delay (announced last week) was welcomed by the LGA, and will remove a significant amount of pressure.
- The prime minster revealed that a temporary Universal Basic Income is being considered by the government, among other measures. We are still waiting for many of the details around welfare, in particular for the self-employed.
Chief executive of the RTPI Victoria Hills urged members to prioritise their wellbeing during these difficult times.
She said: “Working remotely will inevitably slow things down during the transition period and going forward it will be important to establish what can be done as usual, what can be done in a new way and what must be put off for now.
“But above all we must adopt strategies to ensure we stay mentally and physically well.
“Early in this outbreak we suspended all unnecessary travel and began looking at our business continuity plans. As an organisation we have ensured that we have implemented digital strategies to ensure our staff are able to stay in regular contact with each other, we are allowing flexibility to allow for caring responsibilities and we are encouraging our staff to take regular exercise.”
The RTPI is in regular contact with MHCLG and Ms Hills urged planners to come forward with their views on what more the government could be doing so this can be passed on.
Questions that have so far arisen include:
- Will it be possible to hold inquiries, hearings and examinations by digital means rather than postponing them?
- Is there an argument for increased delegated powers given that many planning committee meetings are being postponed?
- How will plans and documents be scanned/loaded onto systems to enable case officers to consider them?
- How will neighbour letters be sent out? Who should put them up? Who will see them?
- Should there be further legislation around mobile masts to improve the quality of digital communications as more people work from home?
- How will elderly people who are self-isolating be given access to local plan consultations?
- What should be done to strengthen cybersecurity if fraudsters take advantage of the situation?
- Should there be further measures around parking at hospitals to be relaxed for the period of the emergency?
- Should standard three-year limits for reserved matters be extended?
The RTPI will be sending out a survey in the coming days to gather member views, which will then be relayed back to government.
Other information which may be useful includes:
- The government’s main source of advice on coronavirus includes information on the social distancing alongside a wide range of other information
- Public Health England has FAQs that will be updated regularly
- This guidance, developed with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, aims to assist employers and businesses in providing advice to their staff
- You may find the advice from ACAS useful in considering any employment-related matters that may impact your local council
- For further reading, the Local Government Association has published a very useful list of different government advice sources
