My name is Naomi and I’m from Rights : Community : Action – a new campaigning group standing up for people and the environment.

The first thing we’re doing is bringing a Judicial Review against part of Dominic Cummings’s undemocratic plans to “tear down the planning system and start again”.

The planning system in England – what’s left of it – gives us all a voice over what development happens where. We need to save it.  

For that we need your help.  

Judicial Review: Planning reforms

On 30 June 2020 Boris Johnson announced the most “radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War… [giving] greater freedom for buildings and land in our town centres to change use without planning permission”.

He’s right. 

The government's changes are radical and could have enormous consequences for the places that we live, the environment, and our right to have a say. But Parliament hasn’t had a chance to debate them. 

The changes were introduced to Parliament the day before the summer recess and are due to come into force on 31 August, the day before MPs come back from their  break.

We think the Government hasn’t played fair and we’re bringing an urgent Judicial Review – a court challenge – to stop them.

We are looking to raise £25,000. This will cover the costs of the case: court fees, adverse costs in case we don’t win, and the costs of our lawyers who have agreed to act on heavily discounted rates. Everyone is giving as much of their time for free and at as low a rate as possible, but to have a good chance of success, we need to do this properly.

Why? 

Our legal challenge focuses on new changes to the law, pushed by Dominic Cummings, which would give what are called ‘permitted development rights’ to developers. If these plans are successfully bulldozed through then developers will no longer need to apply for permission to demolish commercial buildings and build residential ones. The government’s own research has shown that this can result in “slums” and will have big impacts on the environment. Read more in this Observer expose of what living in these homes can be like.

Worst of all, you won’t get a say.

When our planning laws were introduced after the Second World War, they were aimed at putting the public interest above the profits of developers. The essence of the planning regime has stayed in place so long because, by and large, it serves its  purpose of protecting our rights. We’re all familiar with our right to object to a planning application, with councils deciding what happens where and local people getting a chance to input. But Boris and Cummings’ big plan is to “tear down the planning system”: changing permitted development rights is the first frontier of this.

You can read more about the ugly truth of the government’s war on the planning system here. 

This is just the start: the first step in wider planning reforms that the government has announced in its Planning White Paper.  Now is the time to make sure the government listens to people, because the Planning White Paper follows the trajectory of the permitted development reforms: it will reduce your right to have a say and will demolish local democratic control over planning decisions.

Our case 

We are challenging the Government on the way they have made these changes. We don’t think they have properly asked for the public’s views, or properly considered the expert warnings and submissions that they have had. 

Our grounds are that this plan gives permission to an unknown number of developments without having properly considered the impacts. We served notice on the government on 26 August, and on 2 September were granted costs protection. We now have a court fate of 14-15 October. 

As we said in our notice letter to the government: 

“... the Claimant alleges that the Secretary of State has ... ignored crucial legal safeguards designed to prevent rash government decisions and their harmful consequences. His unlawful failings include the failure to carry out a proper environmental assessment of the changes, and the failure to carry out a proper assessment of how the changes impact persons with protected characteristics. The Secretary of State has also unlawfully failed to take into account numerous consultation responses, the views of his own experts, and ... his own express promise to re-consult.  In other words, in the same manner that he has bypassed Parliament, he has also bypassed the law."

We have instructed solicitors Leigh Day and Paul Brown QC and Alex Shattock of Landmark Chambers.

You can read our original letter to the government and our Statement of Facts and Grounds and our skeleton argument here.

Our target

We must raise a minimum of £12,000 to cover court fees and the worst case scenario if we lose our the case and are ordered to pay the government’s costs.

We also hope to raise an additional £13,000 to cover the legal fees of our barristers and solicitors who have agreed to act on heavily reduced rates.

Any funds raised which don’t end up being used for legal fees will support our campaigning work to keep local democracy alive in the planning system - which will sadly be a long fight.