ADD2715 Earls Court Planning Performance Agreement Extension

1.1    Planning Performance Agreements (PPAs) were formally introduced into the planning system on 6 April 2008. They are principally aimed at major planning applications that need substantial amounts of officer time and negotiation throughout the life of the scheme, enabling the GLA to charge for this officer time. They allow officers to improve the quality of schemes that are eventually submitted as planning applications and determined. MD2475, approved on 11 June 2019, gave delegated authority to the Assistant Director to enter into PPAs up to £250,000.
1.2    This PPA extension will fund a series of additional pre-application meetings with the applicant on the redevelopment of the Earls Court site in West London. The initial PPA entered into in July 2022 was for £165,000.
 

2.1    The principal objective is to maintain an effective, high-quality strategic planning service at a time of pressure on resources, and of significant external and corporate demands. This can be achieved by ensuring there are sufficient resources to deal with pre-application advice and applications, including call-ins by the Mayor. The expected outcomes are:
•    a continuation of the ability to deal with workloads, particularly the pre-application service, by having sufficient resources in place; and
•    allowing the GLA planning function to keep up with the levels of demand for advice, while delivering an efficient, fit-for-purpose strategic planning function for the Mayor.     
 

3.1    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, in making these decisions, due regard must be had to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; and to advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics include age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation (and marriage or civil partnership status for the duty to eliminate unlawful discrimination only). In this instance the proposals have been considered and are not expected to have any impacts on those with protected characteristics as distinct from anyone else.

    Mayoral strategies and priorities: 
4.1    Pre-application advice is fundamental to the implementation of the Mayor’s London Plan. This Plan seeks to ensure that the city meets the challenges of economic and population growth with much-needed housing and commercial floorspace, along with other associated social infrastructure and transport infrastructure to enable development. The Mayor’s comments and decisions on referable planning applications are a key implementation tool of the London Plan. The pre-application service helps to ensure subsequent applications deliver London Plan objectives.
    Risk management issues
4.2    Regular monitoring of income will be necessary to ensure the costs of providing the service are covered, and the income is spent within the Regulations associated with the Local Government Act.
    Conflicts of interest
4.3    There are no conflicts of interest to note for any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of the decision.
 

5.1    Approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £38,300 for a PPA in respect of the site, and the receipt of £38,300 on a cost-recovery basis from the Earls Court Partnership Ltd (as the applicant).
5.2    The PPA income and associated expenditure is budgeted within Planning Unit budgets for 2024-25.
5.3    The costs on this agreement will be capped; any additional work required on the scheme over the approved amount will be subject to further approval via the Authority’s decision-making process. 
 

6.1    The project will be delivered according to the following timetable: