You Now Need An Appeal Ready Application From Day One

Planning permission can feel like a moving target, and the rules around appeals have just shifted in a way that catches people out. From our new recording setup, I’m joined by our Planning Director, Mel, to translate the latest farm planning changes into plain, practical steps you can use before you spend money or lose months to delay. If you’ve ever thought, “We’ll submit now and tidy it up later,” this conversation will make you rethink your entire approach.

We unpack the government’s appeal reforms and why they’re a double edged sword: the process should be quicker, but you may no longer be able to introduce fresh reports at appeal stage. That means your first submission has to be watertight, with the right evidence lined up early. We talk through the real world issues that tend to trigger objections and refusals noise, ecology, highways and heritage and how to plan for them so your application is strong enough to stand on its own.

Then we switch to opportunity mode. We dig into permitted development rights, especially Class R, and why it can be such a useful route for rural diversification and change of use in agricultural buildings. We also discuss the temporary campsite permitted development right (tents only) and how a staycation driven summer could turn a good field into a simple seasonal income stream, as long as you avoid the obvious pitfalls like flood risk.

If you’re weighing up whether to resubmit or appeal, or you want smarter ways to unlock value from farm buildings and land, this is for you. Subscribe, share with a farmer who’s stuck in planning, and leave us a review with the planning topic you want us to tackle next.

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Transcript

Welcome To The New Studio

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm Guy and I help farmers get planning permission on their farms. Welcome to our podcast today. We've got a whole new venue for it where we're going to be recording. Welcome to the Farmers Planning Podcast. And I'm here today with our planning director, Mel, and we're just going to talk a little bit today about the insights and changes into farm planning and as to what's changing that you're probably going to need to know on your farm moving forward this year. So, Mel, welcome to the new venue.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

It's lovely. I love the plants.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yeah. So rather than being out on farm, we've decided to come into a studio and film it a bit more professionally, haven't we?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

And warmer too.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Much warmer. Without the wind.

Planning Appeals Reform Explained

SPEAKER_00 0:43

So some of the things that are happening on farms at the moment that's happening at government level, we thought we'd just talk through in terms of legislation changes. So one of those things is planning appeals. They changed on the 1st of April. And I think there's going to be most a lot of farmers out there that basically have seen a headache with planning appeals in the past. Every time you mention the word appeal, we try and avoid doing an appeal because we think, oh my God, we've got to deal with planning inspectorate. We've got to do a complicated process with consultations and maybe additional reports. And we've got to present our case in the best possible light. Well, the government reforms are that they're wanting to change those appeal processes and make it simpler. We haven't actually done one yet. Um because I'm going to say that that's probably because we're getting them over the line before they need to go to appeal. But there will be one that's coming up at some point. What what what do you think farmers need to be aware of with the new appeal changes in terms of simplicity, complexity? What sort of information are we going to have to give? And is it going to be quicker?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Um, right. So first and foremost, um the the changes are an efficiency way forward. I think that the the this the the long-term process of it will make the whole system much shorter, more efficient. So whereas before you were looking at appeal time between nine and twelve months, I think this is going to bring it right back down to about three to four months, which is good for the appellant. In terms of what you need to submit, um, the changes are now significant in the fact that you can only submit now what you submitted at the point of the first application. So if the council found there was a problem with your application or noise, beforehand would be able to go, okay, fine, we'll we'll appeal it, but submit a noise survey. That option is no longer available. You have to have an absolute watertight case with the first planning application that you do, it has to be watertight then. Um, so that means any application moving forward needs to be appeal ready without even thinking about going to appeal, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, so so we're gonna have to make sure that everything's robust in the first place. So it's even more important to get it right if you're looking at you might want to go down the appeal route, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Exactly. Your strategy has to be right from the outset. You've got to predict what issues are going to come up, you know, you're going to have to make sure you've got all the relevant surveys to support your case at the start. So noise, ecology, highways, heritage, they're the they're the main ones, but they all need to be there.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah. The trade-off's going to be, I think, that yes, you get a quicker appeal, but it might actually cost you more up front. It's definitely going to cost more upfront. Yeah. Um, but it's trying to work with those planning officers to try and get it over the line rather than going down the appeal route.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

It absolutely is. But you you know, you've got to be aware of the consultees and what they might have an issue with, and you've got to have everything there and ready at the outset.

Class R Barn Conversion Opportunities

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Cool. So that's the appeals. Um another thing that we think is quite good on farms is something called Class R. We keep mentioning it in videos online as well. Class R. But Class R is a good permitted development, right, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:55

It's a really good one, and there's flexibility in there. There's a thousand square metres that you can change a barn to. Um and the recent, well not recent, 2024 changes actually widened the uses that you could do. So class E is a really big use class that you can bring in. I think you're going to talk about this later, but it allows you to have cafes, shops, even vets, um, gyms and things like that alongside your B8 storage.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, we were looking at one yesterday and we were looking at it for a client for some guest accommodations. So actually we can get some accommodation of some description under class R as well, which isn't actually as complicated as class Q. So it's a class Q's the Actaresi. Um yeah, we think class R is a good permitted development, right? So if you're not using class R on your farm, we'd be advising that you should be really uh definitely at it. Because actually, changes of use were quite costly and slow before because you had to go through all the full applications and the designation, whereas there's four things under class R. It's literally flooding, noise, contamination, and highways. That's all we've got to cover off. So things like bat landscaping or any other limitations are just taken away.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

It makes it much more a slim line approach. So you obviously you've got to make sure you you've got everything in order for those four categories, but it's not subject to those wider consultees and the wider planning policy.

Staycation Demand And Tent Campsites

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah. Right. Jet fuel. Oh wow. And this summer. So we think there's a huge opportunity out there at the moment for staycations because apparently we don't have enough jet fuel. But I was looking at something the other day where they said they're just cutting the flights and they're cancelling airports rather than actually meaning that we can't fly. And apparently the UK has hedged quite well on jet fuel.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

But who knows?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Who knows? I've heard six weeks. I've heard we've got six weeks supply. Six weeks, yeah. And probably by the time this goes out, we might not have any.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

No.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Um, but yeah, for a from a farmer's perspective, you know, you might have a bare bit of land or something, but there's this permitted development right that still exists for campsites.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

There are. This was a big thing during COVID. It kind of went away a bit, but I think there is a real opportunity there, obviously with this backdrop. Um, there's a permitted development right for you to have a campsite on your farm. It is for tents only. You can't have caravans on there or mobile homes, but it is for tents. Um, and if you've got a nice bit of land, possibly with, you know, a river or a reservoir or somewhere like that, where people can use it temporarily for some paddleboarding or something, it's a real opportunity there. And again, as it's a permitted development right, um, it's a notification process. So it doesn't go through the full planning process, and it's quite short as well. So the only thing you need to with that one is to make sure it's not in a flood zone. So don't grow up.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Could I take that? No.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

No, no, tents only.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah. Thanks for coming on the podcast, Mel. I think we found out some really interesting stuff. Um, you know, we've got the the biggest opportunities to staycation then.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Where are you gonna go this summer? Um, I just walk down the field and throw a camp up, can't throw a tent up and Emma I have been looking at tent boxes and apparently I'm not allowed to use it for more than one night.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Why, because you'll ruin it.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I think she wants a bathroom and a and central

Resubmit Or Appeal Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 7:18

heating.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Don't blame her.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Um Yeah, so I think you know, if if you're a farmer out there at the moment and you've lost your application, then you don't necessarily have to appeal it. It might be that a resubmission is the best way forward. So, you know, we'll always help with a call if a farmer wants to ring in about that.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, you know, and actually we get quite a number of calls about that saying we've lost this. Can you have a look at it? What went wrong? So we will definitely always do that.

unknown 7:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

And Mel, you had all this up. So, you know, you're you're very clued up on it all.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I do try.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Our new comment on the website is would you want a fairly confident surgeon, or would you want someone that's done it a hundred times over? You'd want someone that's done it a hundred times over every time. That is like Mel with planning. She's not fairly confident, she's very confident with it.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Thank you.