The commercial property world is changing fast. Whilst sustainability has been a buzz word for number of years now, we are finally seeing concrete measures to try to achieve sustainable development. Two areas in particular are becoming ever more familiar to those granting and those taking leases of commercial buildings – green leases and green [...]
The British Property Federation has issued a Regeneration Manifesto calling for measures to kick start the British building industry following the economic slowdown.
The five suggestions in the report are:
Pay for infrastructure by using the American TIF model
Expand equity sharing – encouraging councils to donate land to make development viable
Use funding for school and hospital building [...]
The Marine and Coastal Access Bill is currently at the Committee stage in the House of Lords. It introduces a new UK wide marine planning system to allow the Government to set a clear direction for how it will make the best use of marine resources. It will introduce simpler licensing of marine developments such [...]
The Planning Act 2008 introduced a new procedure for obtaining planning permission for nationally significant infrastructure. In future, consent for nationally significant infrastructure is to be granted by the Infrastructure Planning Commission. The Infrastructure Planning Commission will take into account the policies set out in National Policy Statements in reaching their decision on whether to [...]
Background
The Planning Act 2008 (“the Act”) introduced a new planning regime for nationally significant infrastructure projects for transport, energy, water and waste.
In particular the Act requires the Government to produce National Policy Statements for nationally significant infrastructure. These are intended to integrate environmental social and economic objectives including climate change commitments in order to [...]
What is twin tracking?
From 6 April 2009 local authorities became entitled to refuse to accept ‘twin tracked’ applications. Twin tracking is a tactic that has until now been used by developers to try and secure a planning consent in terms acceptable to them as quickly as possible. A developer submits two identical planning applications to [...]
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has issued a consultation paper seeking views on their proposed definition of the term ‘carbon neutral’. Responses are invited until 21 May 2009.
Why is a standard definition needed?
As people are becoming ever more aware of the risks posed by climate change, increasing numbers of ‘green’ products and services [...]
