Planning Aspects of the Business and Planning Act 2020

The Business and Planning Act 2020 (BPA 2020) received Royal Assent on 22 July 2020. It includes various measures to help businesses adjust to new ways of working as England recovers from COVID-19. The measures assist businesses to introduce safer ways of working to manage the continuing risks from COVID-19, especially the need for social distancing.

Although the provisions extend to England and Wales, they apply only to England.

The planning aspects of the BPA 2020:

• introduce a new way for developers to vary planning conditions dealing with construction site working hours, to allow extended working hours temporarily/for a set period of time;
• extend the expiration of some planning permissions and listed building consents - the time limit for commencement of development under these permissions will be extended to 1 May 2021;
• give the Planning Inspectorate the flexibility to use more than one type of procedure when it deals with a planning appeal (local enquiry, hearing, or written representations), to enable appeals to progress more quickly; and
• temporarily remove the requirement on the Mayor of London to make the current spatial development strategy available for physical inspection and to provide a hard copy on request.