10 CONTEXT 185 : SEPTEMBER 2025 Law and policy Alexandra Fairclough writes: There have been changes at England’s Department of Media Culture and Sport, with Baroness Fiona Twycross taking over as heritage minister from Sir Chris Bryant MP, who retains the culture role. The draft Planning (Wales) Bill, published on 18 June, was due to be formally introduced into the Senedd in September with the aim of replacing all primary planning legislation for Wales. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which passed through the House of Commons (third reading) on 10 June and had its second reading in the House of Lords on 25 June, seeks to speed up and streamline England’s planning process. On 26 July the Department for Business and Trade announced proposed reforms to assist in the revitalisation of town centres by simplifying some rules around planning and licencing, making it easier for vacant retail premises to be adapted and reused as cafes, bars and music venues. A new National Licencing Policy Framework is proposed. Policy updates include new guidance on upcoming changes to written representation appeals by the Planning Inspectorate, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The most pertinent change is that the ‘expedited’ Part 1 written representations process will be amended so that the planning inspector will decide the appeal on the same basis and information as the planning application, without the main parties needing to submit new evidence, or being able to submit further information, such as appeal statements. The Planning Inspectorate will roll out an online appeals service to streamline the submission and management of appeals. The Culture Media and Sport Committee has been hearing evidence in relation to the Protecting Built Heritage Inquiry, which opened in December 2024. This inquiry is examining issues relating to the management of practical and regulatory challenges, and funding models for heritage. Historic England and the IHBC have submitted written evidence, which is available through the UK Parliament Committees website. On 17 June Historic England published a revised document Listed Buildings and Curtilage (Historic England Advice Note 10). Case law Anesco Ltd v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Anor (re Application for Planning Statutory Review) [2025] EWHC 1177 (Admin) Permission was refused for a solar farm on agricultural land in Norfolk, located adjacent to a conservation area and close to a listed bridge. The inspector recommended approval, but the secretary of state decided otherwise. The application was then refused. An application for statutory review followed on the basis that the secretary of state had failed to take national policy and guidance into consideration. The judge dismissed the statutory review challenge on the basis that the secretary of state’s reasoning as a whole considered national policy and guidance. Appeals Ref: 3353206 The Old Southern Railway Stables in the London Borough of Southwark is a locally listed building and a nondesignated heritage asset. The applicant wishes to renovate and extend the existing building for residential and commercial use. The inspector concluded that the design of the extension would have an unsympathetic form, scale and bulk, making it intrusive and overbearing on the host building and street scene. Dismissed. Refs: 3355509 and 3355508 These appeals relate to a refusal of listed building consent and advertisement consent for the installation of logo signs on a listed Regency jewellers shop in Cheltenham. The signs proposed would be externally illuminated through halo lighting and constructed of red plexiglass Perspex, with an internally illuminated clock face. The inspector concluded that the halo-lit logo signs would create a bright brash appearance when lit, which would appear incongruous against the traditional materials of the listed building, and that the steel clock with white clockface and gold numbering, projecting some 0.9 metres from the building, would appear bulky. This would appear out of place with the refined features and subdued colours of the listed building and other buildings in the conservation area. Both appeals dismissed. Ref: 3358638 An inspector allowed an appeal for the installation of ensuite bathrooms to guest bedrooms on the fourth floor of a listed building designed by Ernest George and Harold Peto, and built for the dramatist
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