Zoning In or Zoning Out? The implications of changes to the UK planning system

Duncan Field and Simon Ricketts are both partners at Town Legal, the specialist planning law firm. Duncan and Simon will examine the likely practical implications for our cities of the UK Government’s radical changes this month to the Use Classes Order and General Permitted Development Order and the Government’s wider “radical” and “comprehensive” reforms, which may include “the use of zoning tools to support development”. What do we make of a system where shopping centres can turn overnight into business parks and vice versa? Where business districts can become high streets and high streets, well, anything? How to plan, what to assume, where does zoning fit in? Duncan and Simon both have extensive practices covering major mixed use development, new towns, urban extensions and large scale infrastructure.