MSc Urban Regeneration and Development / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Planning Powers and Procedures

Course unit fact file
Unit code PLAN60021
Credit rating 15
Unit level FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Offered by Planning and Environmental Management
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

  • Historical perspectives, legal administrative and institutional frameworks for UK planning
  • EU institutions and policy frameworks
  • National, regional and sub-regional planning policy in the UK
  • Forward Planning and Local Development Frameworks in England
  • Supplementary Planning Documents and Neighbourhood Plans
  • Introduction to development control
  • Making planning applications
  • Determining planning applications
  • Operating the system – enforcement, appeals and inquiries
  • Mock public inquiry
  • Special forms of control
  • Contemporary changes and developments

 

Aims

1. To introduce students to the principles of law and governance and to provide a contextual setting for the administration of the planning system
2. To give a basic understanding of the planning systems in the United Kingdom, and then to focus on English national planning policy, local development plan-making (LDF), neighbourhood planning and the management and control of development
3. To understand the nature of development constraint and promotion and the linkages between planning policies, development plans and development control
4. To introduce skills associated with the advocacy of planning cases at a public inquiry situation
5. To provide an understanding of operational aspects of the implementation of the planning system and its management and performance
 

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures, Practical Workshops / Seminars and Mock Planning Inquiry

Knowledge and understanding

Understand the governmental, governance and legal contexts for spatial planning in the United Kingdom; Demonstrate an understanding of the main instruments of the English statutory town planning system, including the relationship between development plans and development management and control; Understand the legal and regulatory basis for implementation and delivery of the English planning system, and the significance of mediation, appeals and enforcement for planning practice; Understand the application of policies, plans and other forms of development strategies for individual planning decisions

Intellectual skills

Critically assess the operation and nature of the current UK / English statutory planning system and the impact of recent reforms, and the broader context of government and legal frameworks, through the seminar discussions and individual essay. 

Practical skills

Practical experience of aspects of plan-making and development control gained through seminars / workshops and mock planning inquiry exercise.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

Teamworking skills, presentation skills, report writing skills, advocacy skills gained particularly through the mock planning inquiry exercise. 

Assessment methods

Essay

Length: 2500 words
How and when feedback is provided: Written feedback
Weighting: 70%



Workshops and inquiry (group work: presentation and written report):

Length: 2500 words
How and when feedback is provided: Immediate feedback at seminars / Written feedback on report 
Weightint: 30%

Feedback methods

Written feedback will be provided following assignment submission and group presentation.

Recommended reading

Department of Communities and Local Government (2012) National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Other relevant Government policy and legislation (e.g. Localism Act 2011; Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act, 2004).
Cullingworth, B. and Nadin V. (2014) Town & Country Planning in the UK (15th Edition), Routledge, London.
Moore, V. and Purdue, M. (2015) A Practical Approach to Planning Law (13th Edition) Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Latest developments in UK planning system and processes, including web-based resources:
www.planningportal.gov.uk and www.communities.gov.uk

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 22
Seminars 12
Independent study hours
Independent study 116

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Mark Baker Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Information
Historical perspectives, legal administrative and institutional frameworks for UK planning
- EU institutions and policy frameworks
- National, regional and sub-regional planning policy in the UK
- Forward Planning and Local Development Frameworks in England
- Supplementary Planning Documents and Neighbourhood Plans
- Introduction to development control
- Making planning applications
- Determining planning applications
- Role of negotiation: Planning gain
- Operating the system - enforcement, appeals and inquiries
- Mock public inquiry
- Special forms of control
- Contemporary changes and developments

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