News

Green Issues – Greenprint Forum

Neighbourhood Plan Guidance – Draft Documents

East Suffolk Council are developing two guidance documents for neighbourhood planning groups to assist them in producing planning policies when producing or reviewing neighbourhood plans, one related to climate change, and the other related to housing, and are consulting for feedback on the draft of each of the two documents. Each consultation seeks views on the proposed content of the document. The questionnaires include questions on each of the sections of the guidance, followed by questions about whether any topics have been missed, and whether any additional glossary entries, case studies or external links would be helpful to include.

Deadline for responses to consultations on both documents: 12 March 2025.

Climate change: Neighbourhood Plan Guidance for Climate Change – East Suffolk Council, Strategic Planning Consultations

Housing: Neighbourhood Plan Guidance for Housing – East Suffolk Council, Strategic Planning Consultations

Reform of planning for critical infrastructure projects

The Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government have published a Planning Reform Working Paper “Streamlining Infrastructure Planning” and are inviting views on how the Government could reform the process for consenting Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP). The Planning Reform Working Paper “proposes a number of measures that could be taken to streamline the consenting process for national infrastructure and to enable faster decision-making, whilst ensuring the process is fair and certain”.

There is no formal deadline.

Planning Reform Working Paper: Streamlining Infrastructure Planning – GOV.UK

Consultation on Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings Regime

The Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government are consulting on proposals to reform the Energy Performance of Buildings Regime in five critical areas: updating EPC metrics, refining requirements for Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Display Energy Certificates (DECs), improving data management protocols, strengthening quality control, and revising Air Conditioning Inspection Reports (ACIRs).

Deadline: 26 February 2025.

Consultation on Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings Regime – Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – Citizen Space