New online local plan monitor launches

Carter Jonas has launched an online platform, which analyses adopted local plans, emerging plans, consultations and housing land supply. 

The Live Local Plan Monitor provides up-to-date information on local planning, which is intended for use by developers, landowners and those responsible for major infrastructure projects.

The microsite for the South and South West was launched this week, and drawing on Carter Jonas’s presence through England, the national picture will be complete shortly.

‘We will use the information collated to identify opportunities for housing and commercial development and to assist our landowning and developer clients in their decision making,’ said Carter Jonas’s associate partner, planning and development, James Cordery.

‘This is particularly important at present, when clients are reading about government proposals for significant and wide-reaching reform of our planning system.

‘Furthermore, the need for a clear understanding of land’s development potential at the early stages of the plan-making process is increasing in importance,’ he added.

‘If enacted, the proposals within the government’s recent white paper — Planning for the Future — will see most of the consultation on emerging development opportunities ‘front-loaded’ through the local plan making stage.

‘This will mean that early engagement becomes even more critical and knowing when to ‘strike’ will provide our clients with an advantage. In the near-term, government is also proposing changes to the standard methodology.

‘If introduced, these changes will increase the new housing requirement for several local planning authorities, providing further opportunities for development proposals to be brought forward, whilst councils work to update their local development plans.’

Peter Canavan, associate partner, planning and development at Carter Jonas, who co-created the tool with Mr Cordery, added: ‘Having worked in the strategic planning teams of local authorities previously, I am all too aware of the difficulty in accessing information about the status of local plans throughout the country.

‘I have always felt that a nation-wide resource would have infinite benefits to local authorities — enabling them to gain an immediate overview of local plans in their region, to draw comparisons nationwide, and to better understand the local plan progress of local authorities with similar challenges and demographics.’

Photo Credit — Pexels (Pixabay)