I went to a "Planning Masterclass" this morning hosted by the good people at London Development Events. Among the speakers was Colin Wilson of the GLA who gave a brief discussion on the Mayor's new planning powers. It lasted about 15 minutes, here's the 30 second version:
The residential threshold has been lowered from 500 units to 150 units, meaning that schemes above 150 units have to be referred to the Mayor. He recons this will add another 36 residential applications to the Mayor's annual load. Once referred, the Mayor has three choices; take no further action, refuse or take over the application and decide it for himself. Furthermore, if an application isn't determined within the time period the applicant can ask the Mayor to take it over, as well as appealing to the local authority against non-determination. And finally, the Mayor will now be responsible for agreeing S106 conditions. This means, that amongst other things, the money raised through S106's will go directly to the Mayor who will pass them on to the borough council, where appropriate. Riveting stuff...
