What’s changed?
The UK Government announced some time ago statutory consultation would be kicked to the kerb in England. What would replace it however; that was the question.
We now have some answers. As of July 24th, applicants will be able to decide for themselves what engagement and consultation it carries out with stakeholders and communities (it’s worth noting that the guidance considers these two things to be different. Engagement is the ongoing information you give communities which is generally one-way, whereas consultation is two-way communication).
However, those thinking consultation is going to be dramatically different need to think again. Instead, developers are recommended that their engagement and consultations are ‘proportionate to the scale and nature of the proposed development and timed to enable meaningful feedback’. So, if you’re thinking you won’t contact stakeholders until a few weeks before anticipated submission – you may want to reconsider. The emphasis is very much on engaging and consulting with communities and bodies who can help flag any key issues well ahead of time, essentially giving you the space to make any necessary changes to your proposed project before you head to examination.
But in reality, what is in and what is out?
No more Consultation Reports
Lengthy and thorough, Consultation Reports gave the Planning Inspectorate an exact and detailed timeline of what engagement and consultation applicants had with stakeholders and the public from prior to launch to submission. Not only that, they also presented evidence such as reems of emails sent and received, proof of published adverts and photos of documents in public libraries.
The new guidance states that, if they so wish, applicants don’t need to submit a report about their engagement with stakeholders at all. However, applicants “may wish to maintain a record of how community input has informed the project design and any proposed mitigations in case this is useful for examination”. At a time when the public is becoming increasingly more educated about renewable energy developments, and more vocal, it surely makes sense to not only engage with them but to keep that all-important record so that any questions at examination can be answered quickly by having a quick jaunt back through the files.
We are also waving goodbye to mandatory Statements of Community Consultation (SoCC’s). These documents outlined how you would be engaging with stakeholders and communities during statutory consultation and had input from local authorities. Regardless of its disappearance, the need to plan and evidence engagement won’t. It’ll be interesting to see what replaces it in practice and how different projects approach it.
What else is new?
In a word, webpages. The new guidance is placing a good amount of significance in keeping people up-to-date through a project website. It seems like a sensible suggestion, and one the majority of developers will already be doing. The key thing here is to keep it relevant and updated with the latest information at all times – that includes plans.
It also doesn’t mean you can automatically say goodbye to posted newsletters or press releases. Instead, you should be building your engagement and consultation around who exactly you will be consulting with (something the best communication professionals have been pushing for ages but which are even more important now). So, if you find your project in an area with an unusually large amount of elderly people, you will want to hang onto, and hand out, document hard copies. Likewise, if the area features people from seldom-heard groups, such as people who are part of the traveller community, in-person events are going to be even more important.
What it does mean though, is less prescribed ways telling us how to engage with people. This means we can not only disregard previous methods which may not be useful to a project, but that we can be more creative to reach communities better than ever before.
A change for the better
We were promised something sensible would be replacing statutory consultation and this new guidance certainly seems to be it. In a world which is changing faster than even the occupants of Downing Street can keep up with, it is only right developers can choose how they engage and consult with those stakeholders who may be affected by their projects. The key will be to ensure you know who your stakeholders are, and their needs, from the outset so you can make the most of this new guidance. Otherwise, you may find that while you sail through acceptance, examination may be more difficult than you anticipated.
However, what the public will make of these changes at a time when confidence in official information is dicey at best is yet to be seen. I suggest we leave that for the next blog.
Read the guidance in full here and if you’re in need of communications and consultation specialists for your development? Pier we are.
