A new permitted development right has come into force from this morning (9 April) to allow the development of NHS facilities to fight Covid-19. The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Covid-19) (England) (Amendment) Order 2020 inserts a new Part 12A ('Development by Local Authorities and Health Service Bodies') into the General Permitted Development England Order.
The permissive part of the schedule sets out what the permitted development ('PD') entails, and it allows for specified activities (set out in the quote below) to take place on local authority or health service land, whether owned, leased or occupied by those entities. A range of bodies may use the new PD right, due to the extended definition of 'health service body' in the new schedule. It includes the Care Quality Commission, the NHS Commissioning Board, CCGs, NHS trusts, Health Education England and multiple others.
This new PD right is time limited to 31 December 2020, and there is then a grace period of 12 months from when the uses ceases to remove building works and suchlike, and restore the land to its previous condition. It is a very positive example of how quickly measures can be introduced into the planning system, when all are pointing in the same direction.
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