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ARTICLE · 17 MAY 2023

Planning Permission Up For Sale?

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
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Emphasising local support secured by economic benefits may be in conflict with the long-standing principle that planning permissions should not be bought and sold.

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard

Emphasising local support secured by economic benefits may be in conflict with the long-standing principle that planning permissions should not be bought and sold.

The December 2022 government consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework closed in March 2023. Supposedly, to encourage such development to come forward, it is proposed that new onshore wind development and the repowering of wind turbines should require "community support". However, an existing community consent requirement for onshore wind development, introduced in 2015, has been the death knell for onshore wind. What has changed?

When the government announced the proposed NPPF changes early in December 2022, it claimed that the new requirement would benefit communities "through lower energy bills", implying that community support would flow from financial reward. However, a fundamental principle of the planning system has always been that planning permissions "cannot be bought

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