Neighbourhood committees lose planning power under new regulations
Kingston Council's neighbourhood committees will no longer have the authority to determine planning applications as a result of new national regulations coming into effect on October 31st, 2026. The changes, stemming from the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, are part of a national program to increase house building and ensure greater consistency in planning decision-making across the country.
Under the new rules, smaller applications, such as householder and minor amendments, will be determined by officers under delegated authority. Larger and more complex applications will be subject to a gateway test
before being considered by the Planning Committee. This test will assess whether an application raises significant economic, social, or environmental issues to the local area, or substantial planning matters having regard to the Development Plan and any other material considerations. Ward Councillor representations, if received within seven days of the public consultation period and raising material planning matters, will be considered during this gateway test, though they do not automatically trigger a review or committee referral.
Councillor Andreas Kirsch, Leader of the Council, stated that the changes aim to regularise how planning committees function across the country.
He added that Kingston's current approach to delegation is already largely compliant with the new regulations, with over 90% of applications currently decided through delegation. The report notes that the overwhelming majority of applications (98.75%) are already determined by officers under delegation.
While the new regulations formalise this, the report indicates that for us, these arrangements, although we've written them out and they're formalised, they're not actually that unfamiliar to how we're working at the moment.
The shift means that all planning applications previously considered by neighbourhood committees will now be handled by officers under delegated authority, unless they pass the gateway test and are referred to the main Planning Committee. This change is expected to have a significant impact on the role of neighbourhood committees, which will no longer have the authority to determine planning applications. However, residents will still have the opportunity to present their views, and the public speaking rules for the Planning Committee have been updated to include speaking rights for ward councillors, neighbouring ward councillors, and neighbourhood chairs/vice-chairs.
Councillor Yvonne Tracy proposed an amendment to retain the right for any councillor to speak at planning committee meetings and to publish gateway decisions with reasons. However, this amendment was not carried. The committee felt that the proposed speaking rights for ward councillors, neighbouring ward councillors, and neighbourhood chairs/vice-chairs provided sufficient representation. Councillor Schaper stated, this is absolutely covered
and that there's still every councillor of the, and not just of the power of kings, but every councillor from other powers are allowed to write in on the planning application and make their comments... So that right to make a representation is not lost. We are only determining here who is allowed to speak at a planning committee.
The council's constitution is being amended to reflect these changes, with a communications plan in development to inform the public and councillors about the new regulations and the continued rights of residents to make representations on planning applications. The timeline for implementation is that the new regulations come into effect on 31 October 2026. The council has committed to publishing gateway decisions and their reasons for transparency.
All applications considered by the council's Planning Committee over the previous municipal year would fall under schedule 2 of the Regulations and therefore, if they passed the gateway test, they would still have been determined by committee. The new regulations will result in a presumption in favour of delegation for smaller applications (Schedule 1), with larger applications (Schedule 2) determined by delegated authority unless agreed otherwise by designated officers through a gateway test.
