The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2025: impact assessments - RPC opinion (green-rated)
Regulatory Policy Committee opinion of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s impact assessments (IA) in respect of the order
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The order makes changes to the permitted development rights that support the installation and operation of off-street electric vehicle charging points (EVCPs), and of air source heat pumps (ASHPs) on or within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse or block of flats.
There are no, or no significant, additional burdens on business, charities or voluntary bodies because the amended permitted development rights are deregulatory in effect, reducing bureaucracy and planning costs. The main business impacts are: providing certain businesses with more flexibility to utilise the permitted development rights to install off-street EVCPs and the equipment to support the operation of electrical upstands in non-domestic car parks without a planning application, saving them time and money; and private sector landlords, who will have more flexibility to fit an ASHP without the submission of a planning application.
The legislation also benefits small or micro businesses, such as some private sector landlords, who will benefit from the increased flexibility to upgrade their housing stock; and car park operators; and will benefit, indirectly, ASHP and EVCP installers (which are often small or micro businesses), as the measures enable and facilitate the scale-up in installations and provide additional certainty in terms of the Government’s commitment to meeting net zero obligations.
The IAs set out sufficiently the assumptions, data, and calculations behind the estimates of impacts on business (-£36 million – combined) for both the EVCP and ASHP measures. The estimate assumes that savings to businesses from planning fees and noise assessment fees, and reduced time spent on applications, will outweigh the familiarisation costs of the new regulatory system. The IA provides a good cost-benefit analysis for each measure and a satisfactory consideration of wider impacts. It also includes a reasonable assessment of the impacts on small and micro businesses, describing the possible impacts on private landlords, planning agents and installers of ASHPs and EVCPs. Small and micro businesses are not exempt as they are expected to benefit from the measures. The IA includes, however, only a very limited monitoring and evaluation plan, which should be strengthened.
The two IAs that the opinion corresponds too, can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2025/89/pdfs/ukia_20250089_en.pdf, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2025/90/pdfs/ukia_20250090_en.pdf.