Ferdinand

Agree with Tony's last comment - I have been whinging about this for some years in various places. ? My estimates are that theoretically "reasonably" well insulated homes are recent (what do we say - post 2000? or post 2010) only accumulate at about 1% of the stock per year (250k a year, 25 million stock, ish), and that each of these represents perhaps 20-50% (guestimate based on about 3 bands of EPC grading representing a halving of C02 emissions very roughly) of the emissions of an older one. I think a move from an E/F to a C is a halving of emissions roughly. There are various profiles you can do about how far various grades of stock are insulated and how much to get numbers. On this one we need to follow, Scotland and begin to think about applying the "rental EPC ratchet" (rentals likely required to be EPC C by 2030 unless a spanner is put in the works of the ratchet) to all Owner Occupied housing. That has worked in that in England rental housing is now better on the EPC scale than OO (English Housnig Survey 2 years ago) - albeit by not vey much. I think this will happen because it is the easiest way imo to hit the medium term extra C02-reduction target. And GHG is beginning to address the issue. Ferdinand

In the Hi Tech Telegraph you just switch Javascript off.

Are you sure insulation in the ground will keep it warm? Worth a heat modell?

Put in a Homer Simpson video by mistake. More seriously, perhaps find an outside authority to define what you need for PP. Maybe there is an instructional video somewhere. One source is to look at a few other PPs for individual houses on your Council website and see how extensive the document set isn't, and also perhaps how the design evolved. Somebody on here did a very few pages, with self-drawn hard copy plans.

And welcome.

If your architect is knowledgeable in Planning and engaged to get it through planning, I would perhaps back off and let them run it. So you hopefully swerve the whole domestic tussle. If that will work. Though a different floor height may affect windows which may affect planning. In general, planning are interested in stuff that affects other people rather than what colour your taps are. Relatively little internal affects other people, beyond things inside that define penetrations eg windows and flues etc, stuff that defines appearance etc. F

That looks ... quite posh. It will be fun when Buttercup visits.

Here you go for a description of Special Measures. It has only been applied to 3 LPAs - that is once every 10 years. You are quite special ? . ------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Special_measures_designation_for_under-performing_planning_authorities Special measures designation for under-performing planning authorities Section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows certain applications to be made directly to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government where a local planning authority has been 'designated'. The Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 gave the Secretary of State power to 'designate' local planning authorities if their performance in handling major planning applications was below an acceptable standard. Under the original provisions of the Act, local planning authorities could be designated as under-performing and placed under 'special measures' by the Secretary of State if: 30% or fewer of their decisions on major applications were made within the statutory determination period or such extended period agreed in writing with the applicant. The statutory period is 13 weeks, unless an application is subject to Environmental Impact Assessment, in which case it is 16 weeks. A major application is an application for 10 homes or more, or the equivalent commercial floorspace. More than 20% of major applications decisions were overturned on appeal. Local planning authorities under special measures have applications determined by the planning inspectorate and lose a proportion of the application fee. Special measures designation is reviewed annually to allow improving authorities to regain their determination powers. However, on 28 November 2014, in response to a consultation on the criteria for identifying under-performing planning authorities, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced its intention to raise the threshold for decisions on major applications from 30% to 40%. Ref Planning performance and planning contributions. Then, on 24 August 2015, following publication of ‘Fixing the foundations’, the government formally revised the threshold again to 50 per cent. Ref Improving planning performance: criteria for designation. The government pointed out that up until that time, only three planning authorities had been subject to special measures and two of those had subsequently had their designation lifted. In November 2016, the government published Improving planning performance Criteria for designation (revised 2016) Presented to Parliament pursuant to section 62B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This will increase the threshold for major projects to 60% and for non-major projects of 70%, but will also introduce a quality threshold of 10%. The quality threshold relates to the percentage of the total number of decisions made by the authority on applications that are then subsequently overturned at appeal. The criteria have effect from the day following the end of the statutory 40 day period during which Parliament may consider the measures, provided neither House resolves not to approve it.

Government appointed supervision / management because the thing has gone to hell in a handcart.

Every Appeal costs the Council money to pay for prep.

Does it create a microclimate where you can grow something interesting? It will certainly keep moulds and bugs down via the airflow, and probably protect from frost. Why not try some container-plants. I suppose also it matters where it blows or sucks from, as potentially leaves could be sucked in.

Have a look at some on previous similar planning apps, until you are clear that you understand what is required (also compare the Planning Conditions). Then find yourself a pro to do it - I do not think you can do this one yourself. If i am wrong a n other will shout up. And welcome.

These have been very popular for a few years now. Half of it is dedicated to cleaning plants, and the rest for swimming, with some sort of divider. I always fancied the idea of having one with water running through it at less than the unlicensed limit of 20 cubic m per day, next to a local river. But that would be different. My dream would be a sandy bottom over a liner on the swimming half. Budgets for a built-for-you one are substantially more than an outdoor swimming pool. Get a HaHa with a liner. F

I was going to lower the tone there but I'll just give you another Partridge-esque shrug. Perhaps a wrong call on tor part imo. I think COVID will have a significant effect on all of this. Not perhaps in my area ... here prices are low enough that the market has always been functional, even for eg minimum wage couples. Here trad 2 bed terraces are available at around 70-75k or 60k for a doer upper. You can get a new 2 bed semi on a new estate for under 140k. That is the same in cash terms as the peak of 2003/4 when they previously doubled in 18 months in the Blair property boom, and then drifted back down by nearly half. It took 15 years to recover. But imo there will be a change in London. I monitor a small no of developments for rents and prices, and even the desirable have *far* more availability than usual. Many Central London asking rents are 5-25% down, after several years of static or down-ward drift before that. Add in that it is reported to be 300k down in population, plus COVID fleeing work-from-homers. And that will imo may well take down quite a few of the highly leveraged zombie LL businesses, who have been under the cosh since 2015. I'm expecting a lot of letting-sized flats going through auctions in the next 2 years. There will be some investment from LLs, but investment plummeted after the various Osborne taxes. The upshot will be more availability, and perhaps lower prices for a catchup period. Given that there are particular segments of the population that have fared better financially during COVID - yes some service pros, but also public sector working every hour God sends. I think that some of those will be buying in some parts of London and other places. Maybe not a sea change, but a change. F

Oh, and go in and read through *all* the file. Take an iPad for notes, and subtle pictures though not allowed. Something like a Photoshop or Pintshop Pro can pull out the distortion via a stretch tool.

I would go and talk to people with the other garages to see if anyone has had thee Council going beserk before. It might also be a good Q for Planning Aid (run by RICS) to see if they can advise you on the legal principle of enforcing a condition 50 years later when there are extant breaches, and when the original planning docs used appear to be the non-approved plan (if that is the case). You have to ascertain your facts yourself, then ask a general Q about the planning principles. Find them via google. I would consult your Planning Solicitor or member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (MRTPI) about arguing that the condition is no longer enforcible. If it were a covenant not a condition then you would I think not have much trouble with it, as breaches of the same covenant close by undermine its enforcibility. I do not knows the ins and outs, or how the "requirements" apply to old planning conditions that are breached elsewhere: "planning conditions should only be imposed where they are: (i) necessary (ii) relevant to planning and (iii) to the development to be permitted (iv) enforceable (v) precise and (vi) reasonable in all other respects;" iv, v, and vi look questionable here, to me. But it is obscure, so you need an expert to worry them - and ultimately that is an MRTPI. Ferdinand

Wait until COVID is over then take a torch down your local nightclub. (Can't see it with 2 black eyes, mind). For a serious solution, consider either trad Dymo Tape (which does come in at least 5 colours of Flourescent) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Compatible-FLUORESCENT-Embossing-Label-Maker/dp/B01M22VXXG or the stuff the RNIB call "Liquid Plastic", which goes on as a liquid and then sets (in Orange and Black) (*) https://shop.rnib.org.uk/rnib-tacti-mark-tactile-labelling or you could even use the sort of "nipples" I put at the right spot on the back of a cupboard door to stop it hitting something, or on the wall where the handle with hit. El-cheapo from Amazon. or if it is temporarily to see them, get a head torch F (*) Comes with large print instructions in case you take a few years to get round to it.

I think there are still places which are below their 2003-7 levels, in cash terms ... never mind inflation. I would look for success to be that prices rise broadly in line with somewhere between inflation and wage inflation.

Running a few numbers on mine. For my personal property it would be virtually neutral. For a rental at say 100k value, Council Tax could be £1000 very ish, and the new one would be £480. I think my Ts would agree to such a change in rent, as it is a split of benefit and that is a principle I often use. One fly in the ointment is if they tried to do the Osborne "business expenses are part of taxed income" thing, which would make it more difficult.

OTOH might it encourage an adjustment through moves and different supply/demand balance? London rents are substantially down after COVID - like 5-20% down, and have been softer than everywhere else for several years. No idea how it will go.

Hmmm. Another benefit of Stamp Duty going would be to reduce savings required by first time buyers. F

I think the logical time to do it would be either at the end of a short extension to the Stamp Duty holiday, or immediately. That would entirely lance the kind of chaos Nigel Lawson caused in 1988 when he gave 4 months warning of major change to close a huge loophole. I have not got my head around whether likely house price fluctuations after COVID would make it easier or harder to implement. Liability on rented property would make a big difference to me, as Council Tax tends to be around 20% ish of the rent. That would be punishing, and I am already well into 5 figures in Corona in adjustments, rent rise delays, and writeoffs helping tenants get through intact. If adjustments are not too lumpy, I may really like this. F

Back on topic. The genesis of this idea seems to be in a piece on Conservative Home by Kevin Hollinrake MP, from the All Party Housing Group. "In place of the administrative challenge of council tax, in which properties are taxed through a confusing and distorting system of bands and exemptions, the PPT would apply a single rate of tax – 0.48 per cent of property value – to all homes. Owners rather than tenants would be responsible for the tax, removing over 8.7 million households from property tax altogether and saving councils an annual £400 million in administrative costs. To incentivise more efficient usage of existing property, a surcharge on second, empty and offshore-owned homes would be introduced, as well as on plots of land that received council planning permission yet have been left vacant by developers. The policy is revenue neutral – raising the same amount of money for the Treasury as the scrapped taxes currently do. To maintain the important democratic link between local expenditure and local taxation, Fairer Share recommends that the 0.48 per cent rate should consist of two components. A fixed national rate (0.32 per cent) which would go to central government for redistribution and an initial floating local rate (0.16 per cent) which would go straight to the local authority and could subsequently be moved up or down by that authority. In this way local authorities retain flexibility over taxation and voters can still judge them on value for money. And importantly, this approach includes the complete abolition of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on owner-occupied residential property. " https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2020/09/kevin-hollinrake-conservatives-must-consider-a-proportional-property-tax.html It is quite a long, interesting piece. Looking at that, it seems to aim to solve the "granny in a £2 million house" problem, by reducing the transaction costs of leaving, and slightly increasing those of staying. F

It's not the big one though. CGT relief on main dwelling needs to just go to undistort the market. That is worth £25bn a year and the benefit is heavily tilted to the better off and the rich areas. As it is a tax on gain, all that happens is that the gain is a little smaller. ?

Interesting one. Looks carefully pitched in value terms. £2400 on a 500k property. Not too out of balance for normal houses in Outer London in CT terms. Would cost buyer there a few hundred a year and save approx 15k on the Stamp. Would seriously impact those places like Westminster / Wandsworth where CT has traditionally been low, but would save more on the Stamp. Impacts elsewhere less extreme. Works for all of those. Also works for the Red Wall and other areas as SD levels are very small for the vast majority. Also in such areas CT is higher, so it would play to "levelling up". Peter is right that renting is the hard case. They could try keeping and increasing Stamp Surcharge. I wonder if coming London price adjustments may make a difference. One issue is greater centralisation nationally, as there may need to be inter-area adjustments. F