Press Releases for 2010

North West Insider - Green Pages - Green Wash to Green Cash

01/05/2010

Investors, developers, landlords now is the time to turn the green agenda from an unwelcome additional cost into a rewarding capital boost for new projects , existing assets and provide a long term revenue stream.

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote in these pages along similar lines.  Meanwhile, whilst new building may have stalled, regulation and targets to be achieved have continued to be introduced.  Similarly the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) is beginning to bite, meaning existing asset owners and occupiers need to reduce their energy consumption.

Crucially the Treasury and DECC have introduced a raft measures to provide financial stimulus for Low and Zero Carbon energy schemes. These have helped tip the balance to unlock the capital needed to invest in LZC and enable the long term profits to be realised.

This means that meeting increasingly stringent planning and building regulations can be turned from an additional cost to new profit or capital.

Equally there are huge opportunities for owners of existing developments to generate alternative income from their assets whilst at the same time reducing CRC obligations.

As for the future, in common with much of the pre-election policy ‘debate' there is little to choose between the main parties and the financial incentives that have been committed to.

To help unlock these opportunities NJL can bring together the right team of specialists and advisers to deliver maximum value, please contact Rob White, Partner 0845 362 8208 - rob@njlconsulting.co.uk

North West Insider - Peel wins consent to revamp Stockport retail

22/04/2010

NJL Consulting has achieved a series of asset management planning consents for Peel at its Peel Centre retail park in Stockport town centre. The consents cover 30,000 sq ft and will enable Peel to provide reconfigured retail units for potential new occupiers. NJL partner Nick Lee said: "The Peel Centre is an integral part of Stockport town centre, and Peel is prepared to invest to maximise the benefits to both their asset and to the town overall."

North West Insider - Regional Review - Stockport

01/04/2010

Back in the game - After a lengthy hibernation, Stockport is waking up again.

There hasn't been an awful lot to cheer about in Stockport lately. With town centre developments mothballing, shops closing and not much to smile about at County or the Sale Sharks, you would forgive us for being a bit downcast.

But the area has reasons for optimism in 2010. Eamonn, Boylan is expected to make waves as the new chief executive of the council: and the announcement of Sky's investment in the town has created a buzz and while the surrounding leafy Cheshire towns continue to prosper in their own micro economy, Stockport must seize the moment.

Lorraine Lockie, managing partner at Gorvins solicitors says: 'Like elsewhere in the North West, the economic environment in Stockport is challenging. Retail has been hit by closures on the high street, notably Woolworths and Borders. And there has been disappointment that the development of areas of the town centre and the proposals in respect of Grand Central have failed to materialise or are under review. Stockport reflects the national economy in terms of the reluctance of businesses to commit to capital investment in times of uncertainty and lack of liquidity. But the town has many assets to use to its advantage. Stockport College is a major training resource in the area and the incubator units at Houldsworth Mill and Broadstone Mill are providing invaluable assistance to start-ups. The business and professional community is strong but we need to make sure we are not left behind. There is a danger that we will miss out on developments in the Greater Manchester area for high-speed broadband, which will affect Stockport as a place to do business. Good businesses need good infrastructure, and while there are many solid businesses in the borough that have more than weathered the downturn, the future requires serious commitment to enable the area to thrive."

Nick Lee, partner at NJL Consulting in Didsbury, is critical of the inertia that has characterised developments in Stockport. "Eamonn Boylan will be good for the borough; he is definitely needed to sort out the priorities. Too much time has been wasted doing plans and not enough time has been invested in delivering schemes. The Bridgefield scheme was nothing short of over-ambitious, based on too much optimism as to what Stockport can achieve. They thought the world would never end. Now they need to concentrate on deliverable projects. They need a more concentrated town centre scheme and to focus on the station. Every train has to stop there, and it is well used by South Manchester people travelling to London; it's an underused asset. The Sky deal is a good start but Stockport needs to keep up the momentum."

North West Insider - Planning in for family housing scheme

31/03/2010

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has submitted a planning application to build a family housing-led development in Blackley, Manchester. The site at Celia Street has consent for a predominantly apartment-led scheme, but the new proposals will provide 111 units weighted towards three- and four-bedroom houses. Paul Smith, land and planning director at Taylor Wimpey, said the move was in response to customer demand. "This sometimes puts us at odds with planning authorities who are seeking to enforce policies produced when the dynamics of the housing market were very different, but we are confident that common sense will prevail." NJL Consulting submitted the application on Taylor Wimpey's behalf.

Place North West - Taylor Wimpey tweaks Blackley plans

31/03/2010

Planning consultants NJL Consulting have submitted a full planning application on behalf of housebuilder Taylor Wimpey for a residential development in Blackley, Manchester.

The proposals revise the site's current reserved matters consent and will provide an increased number of family housing in response to the market conditions.

The site at Celia Street, Blackley currently has consent for an apartment-led scheme. In contrast the housing mix provided within the new scheme will provide 111 units and is heavily weighted towards three- and four- bedroom houses.

Paul Smith, land and planning director at Taylor Wimpey Manchester, said: "Our customers are telling us that they want traditional family accommodation and that is what our application at Celia Street is intending to provide for them. On both this site and a number of new projects we have recently secured, we are having to be much more conscious of delivering the right product for that location. Unfortunately, this sometimes puts us at odds with Planning Authorities who are seeking to enforce policies produced prior to 2007 when the dynamics of the housing market were very different, but we are confident that common sense will prevail."

Nick Lee, partner at NJL Consulting, said: "The move away from the apartment-led scheme is further evidence of the drive towards more family orientated accommodation where viable solutions can be found on sites with previous planning consents. It is hoped that the application will be determined over the next 8-10 weeks."

Crains Manchester - Taylor Wimpey revises Blackley Scheme

31/03/2010

Taylor Wimpey Manchester has submitted a new planning application for its residential development site at Celia Street in Blackley, Manchester.

The new plans, submitted by Manchester-based NJL Consulting, include an increased number of homres for families on the site, where it had previously been an apartment-led scheme.

The new scheme will provide 111 units and is now heavily weighted towards three and four-bedroom houses instead of flats.

Paul Smith, land and planning director at Taylor Wimpey Manchester, said: "Our customers are telling us that they want traditional family accommodation and that is what our application at Celia Street is intending to provide.

"On both this site, and a number of new projects we have recently secured, we are being much more conscious of delivering the right product for that location.

"Unfortunately, this sometimes puts us at odds with planning authorities that are seeking to enforce policies produced prior to 2007 when the dynamics of the housing market were very different, but we are confident that common sense will prevail."

Nick Lee, partner at NJL Consulting, said "The move away from the apartment-led scheme is further evidence of the drive towards more family-orientated accommodation on sites with previous planning consents."

Planning Resource - Appointment at NJL Consulting

26/03/2010

NJL Consulting has appointed Laurie Wills senior sustainability consultant responsible for renewable energy and low-carbon feasibility studies, eco-homes and code for sustainable homes assessments. He previously worked at RSK Group.

Place North West - NJL appoints Laurie Wills as Consultant

20/03/2010

Didsbury-based NJL Consulting has appointed Laurie Wills in a new role as a senior sustainability consultant.

Wills previously worked at RSK Group where he helped establish the carbon management team based in Manchester.

He will be delivering renewable energy and low carbon feasibility studies for developments, as well as energy performance certificates and provide advice to construction companies and local authorities.

Wills said: "NJL has a great track record of securing consents and leading on the sustainability agenda. I am pleased to be part of the successful team and to further support our clients in this area."

Rob White, partner at NJL Consulting, added: "Laurie is a key recruit to our growing sustainability team. He enables us to provide compliance based services complimenting our wider sustainability appraisal skills. This will help us deliver these services across all stages of planning and development."

NJL Consulting is based on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury and currently advise on more than 14,000 residential units across the UK comprising major projects of up to 4,500 units. NJL's role includes project managing the planning process with the aim of providing clients with increased certainty over programme and budgets leading to a planning decision.

Property Week - Conservative Approach

19/03/2010

Developers in the North West are contemplating what life might be like if David Cameron were to win the impending general election.

If developers thrive on certainty and clarity in planning matters, then the upheaval of scrapped housing targets and abandoned regional strategies promises some difficult days under a possible Conservative government.

The Tories planning "green paper", published on 22 February, ripped up areas of significant planning policy. Bob Neill, shadow minister for local government and deputy chairman of the Conservative party, spent 30 minutes outlining the changes at Property Weeks North West 2010 conference last month, just before the paper was officially released.

Central to the Tories plans was the third-party right to appeal, which would allow local people to challenge planning decisions.

"Decision making needs to be more locally calibrated to ensure growth and efficiency," Neill Said. "the links between the governors and the governed need to be closer. At the moment, they are distorted towards London and the south east."

Arguably, the most contentious and alarming prospect for developers was the removal of regional strategy is out for consultation - and with it specific housing targets for local authority areas. A Tory government would set in motion legislation to do this in its first year in power.

Instead of regional development agencies setting annual targets, power would be given to local councils to proposed whatever target they wish. For the benefit of processing current applications and maintaining development, Neill recommends am interim position of maintaining five year land supplies and local plans. For how long is not clear.

Neill's objection to housing targets is not just about numbers. He returned repeatedly to the notion of electoral responsibility and the fact that regional development agencies are not elected.

"We would get rid of regional strategies because they don't have a democratic accountability", he said. The present system is not without its own controversy. When the regional strategy was introduced a decade ago, moratoria were implemented by councils, which already had residential consents that would satisfy their targets, much to the disappointment of housebuilders. But at least developers know what they are working with.

All sides of the planning process - council officers, elected councillors and developers - are hesitating in the confusion. Contentious schemes that councils may be minded to back to meet targets under the Labour regime might be easily forgotten if they can wipe the slate clean under the conservatives.

Rob White, Partner at NJL Consulting in Manchester says: "Authorities, especially those with large urban extension development proposed in the green belt, are sitting on their hands as much as possible while they wait to see what will happen to the planning landscape. This has made developers extremely nervous about committing a lot of money into an application."

White is advising a housebuilder on a large scheme next to the Manchester Ship Canal and says the regional strategy's support of the growth of the canal corridor under the Atlantic Gateway concept could be lost under the Conservatives.

"There is just a lot of doubt about how to proceed", he adds. "A lot of QC's say get in early with a planning application because a decision could be forced by appeal, even where authorities are hesitating. Others say it isn't worth it."

Advisers fear development will drift towards authorities that want it, but not necessarily where the market wants it. The government's growth point initiative identified planning authorities that volunteered to build more houses, crying out to burst their often stringent targets. Manchester, Trafford, Salford, Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, Halton, St Helens and Warrington, for example want more houses. By contrast, development of family houses in affluent commuter belt areas such as Wirral, Congleton and Macclesfield, where councils have in recent years been reluctant to support new applications, could freeze in the next five years.

Beyond the housing issue, the "green paper" says empowering councils would extend to their finances, allowing them to keep revenue from business rates - collected locally at present for six years being mooted. They would also have the right to go to market and raise bond finance.

North West Insider - All in the Planning

03/03/2010

Planning is one of the most political areas of property, so with a general election looming there's plenty happening.

Downturns are unpleasant for everyone, but even more unpleasant for those stuck with only a narrow specialism, such as architects. Planning is different, though, It is political, open to interpretation and tied in with public sector holdings. And largely, planning consultants in the North West are proving an adaptable bunch.

By and large, it has been helpful to have a supermarket client - Nick Lee, Managing Director at NJL Consulting says: "There have been bunfights all over with the food retailers and that will continue because they're completing so fiercely for market share. Supermarkets are a safe haven in a recession and they're all active in different ways. Sainsbury's is extending stores, Tesco has applications of all sizes, Morrison's has picked up a lot of Somerfield stores and The Co-operative is working smaller stores."

Residential is another battleground. The plc housbilders have refinanced and with pent up demand in most parts of the country, schemes are set to go, ready for the return of the mortgage markets.

Nick Lee says: "Planning will be important in delivering housing. A lot of units are in the pipeline now, but build rates are low and will take time to come back. Housebuilders won't want to accelerate because they need prices to be as strong as possible".

Nick Lee, NJL Consulting "There are good intentions but a lot of other priorities need to be worked through. Planning won't be tackled in the first year. There will be no immediate shake-up".

53º Magazine - Regional Strategy for England's North West

01/03/2010

The North West Regional Development Agency claims the new Regional Strategy for the Northwest provides a unique opportunity to bring together its spatial, economic, social and environmental strategies and build a new long term vision for the region.

They plan to produce an agreed strategy which will guide action and investment by Business, National and Local Government and the Voluntary and Community Sectors.

The consultation on this Regional Strategy is open until February 26th 2010 so time is running out for people to have their say.

It highlights that we need to align the upgrading of infrastructure with the spatial and thematic priorities and gives us options to assess for achieving sustainable economic growth.

The current consultation is on Part 1, a necessary stage of consultation and public engagement, but Part 2 is the document that will set the detailed policies and actions to make things happen. This is what we really want to be reading and seeing developed.

The Strategy identifies a broad framework of what needs to be done within the Region but if we are going to have clearer public body decision making and real progress they would time have been better spent at delivering certainty and progress with the Local Development Framework system and easing delivery?

Or is this a case of refraining from committed and detailed policies so as not to inform the widely feared ‘localist' agenda?

For help in considering the appropriate response to position your property and/or land holding please contact Russell Adams at russell@njlconsulting.co.uk or 0845 362 8204.

NJL Consulting: No Surprise in Resi Delays

05/02/2010

Rob White, partner at Manchester-based NJL Consulting, has said results found in a Government report over delays in residential planning applications are not surprising.

The Government's housing and planning adviser National Housing and Planning Advice Unit said only a fifth of major residential developments receive planning consent within the Government's 13-week target for determining planning applications.

White said: "The results of this research are not surprising. There are a number of reasons the planning process is taking too long.

"One of the key reasons is that despite all the constructive pre-application meetings being held with the Local Planning Authorities to ensure that applications satisfy their requirements and they are fully informed about the submission documents in advance, there are no enforceable deadlines for statutory consultees to respond.

"The responses from statutory consultees are often late, and clearly 'cut and pasted' standard paragraphs responses, where it is obvious that the submissions have not been read or considered by appropriately qualified and experienced staff.

"The planning officers are then in a tricky position as although they themselves may be satisfied with the proposals, they are obliged to consider the Statutory responses and refer these to the applicant. The result is further unpredictable delays to the process whilst information is exchanged or meetings are arranged, when a prompt and proper consideration of the submission documents would have avoided this or at least narrowed down the issues for further consideration.

"Frustratingly, consultees tend to respond on a whole range of issues for which they are not necessarily the responsible organisation or do not have the requisite in-house expertise, this leads to more issues being raised which could be avoided if consultees focussed on their prescribed remit.

"This remains one of the biggest problems even when Planning Performance Agreements are in place that formally include the statutory consultees in the pre-application process and set out agreed programmes for the post-application phase.

"The applicant's only recourse is to appeal for non-determination, incurring further delay and cost, to force the programme forward. Frustratingly once this process is entered into it is often the case that the statutory consultees withdraw their objections or issues for concern and decline to appear at the inquiry, leaving the Local Planning Authorities and the applicant to bear the cost and resource implications when between them they considered the issues resolvable in the first place.

"Alongside the delays themselves the issue of costs, the variation in these between LPAs and the lack of accountability over them is increasingly becoming a cause for concern for applicants.

"On the one hand pre-application discussions are encouraged and Planning Performance Agreements promoted for the larger schemes, but some local authorities are now seeking to charge ridiculous amounts for these meetings of up to £1,000 each. However, there is no accountability if the applicant considers that the meetings are not being properly prepared for, staffed or agreed actions undertaken by the local authority. This is on top of hefty application fees which for some of the larger applications NJL is managing that cover more than one local authority are already over £180,000.

"It also needs to be remembered that consent is not granted until the Section 106 Agreements have been signed. So even where the application has been approved by committee in the target timeframe, S106 Agreements usually involve lengthy discussions and delay the process even further. In some circumstances the LPA is using the S106 process to stall progress for several years.

"We aim to manage this by minimising the content of S106 Agreements and making use of appropriate conditions shared in advance with the LPA, but third party interests for which there is no accountable deadlines often frustrate this process further."

NJL Consulting, based on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury, is currently advising on more than 14,000 residential units across the UK comprising major projects of up to 4,500 units. NJL's role includes project managing the planning process with the aim of providing clients with increased certainty over programme and budgets leading to a planning decision.

53º Magazine - Moving Towards a More Efficient Planning System

01/02/2010

The planning system is often regarded as being overly complicated and frustrating.

However there are steps being taken to resolve some of the issues and the first significant move towards a more efficient planning system was the Killian Pretty Review in November 2008 proposing a series of measures to make a faster, more responsive planning system.

In December 2009, the Housing and Planning Minister John Healy announced a number of proposals from this Review to streamline the planning system and to help businesses deliver projects quickly, aiming to reduce costs as the country moves towards economic recovery. 

Three key consultation papers have been released; the deadline for responses is 19^th March 2010 on the following topics:

• Development Management - promoting a positive and more proactive approach between local planning authorities and developers.

• Improving the Use and Discharge of Planning Conditions - to look at the way in which conditions are applied with the aim of reducing the time taken from consent to construction.

• Improving Engagement by Statutory and Non Statutory Consultees - suggestions to improve the performance of agencies involved in the application process.

We hope that these reforms are swiftly implemented with positive effects for the planning system and future development.  For more information on the proposals or to download the consultation papers go to: http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/planningandbuilding/. 

If you would like any help or guidance on a planning related issue, or in preparing responses to these papers, then please contact Nick Lee from NJL Consulting on 0845 3628202, email nick@njlconsulting.co.uk or visit www.njlconsulting.co.uk

53º Magazine - Knowing Where You Stand With Planning

01/01/2010

If you have a property project and the rules are set out in the Development Plan set by the council then you usually know where you stand but most Development Plans are out of date and there are many other new documents that councils have now produced.

Local Planning Authorities sometimes take new policy positions without letting you know directly therefore leading to a complicated process which catches you unaware.

It is critical that before even preparing a project or scheme you fully understand all of the pitfalls and issues regarding the policies and tests that may apply.  This can equally apply to smaller scale as well as larger more complex projects. It is not unknown for the Authority to have 15 different documents that set out their policies. However, it then takes time and patience to fully understand each Authority's most up to date thinking.

What is acceptable to some Authorities is also not acceptable to others. This inconsistency often baffles people not used to the system.

If you would like any help or guidance on a planning issue then please contact Nick Lee from NJL Consulting on 0845 362 8202 or email nick@njlconsulting.co.uk or for more information view our website at www.njlconsulting.co.uk