Planning performance agreements

If you’re planning a large or complex development, we offer a planning performance agreement (PPA) service to help manage your planning application.

Find out more about PPAs and how to get one.

What is a PPA

A planning performance agreement (PPA) is a project management tool. It’s used by us and developers to agree on timescales, actions and resources for handling applications.

It does not:

• guarantee planning permission or determine the outcome of your planning application
• affect your legal rights, including your right to appeal a planning decision

How the process works

To get the best planning results for everyone, including residents, we work closely with developers from the beginning of a project until all planning decisions are made and conditions attached to planning permissions are resolved. This can help speed up the planning process and reduce risks.

A PPA helps coordinate the planning process at every stage. It often includes:

• detailed discussions before you submit a planning application
• more access to officers during the application process, including input from our specialist officers on issues such as design, heritage, sustainability and biodiversity
• use of our independent design review panel (where appropriate)
• clear timetables for progress of planning applications
• coordinating the discussion, review and approval of final scheme details after planning permission is granted

How to get a PPA

If you think a planning performance agreement (PPA) might help your project, the first step is to contact us for pre-application advice.

As part of the pre-application process, we’ll review your proposal and determine if a PPA is suitable.

PPAs are not suitable for every project. We usually only enter into a PPA when it appears that the development is likely to deliver positive planning outcomes after early discussions.

If we agree that a PPA is appropriate, we’ll prepare a formal agreement, outlining the planning process timeline and fee.

If a PPA is not appropriate, you can still use our pre-application services. However, once you submit a planning application, there will be limited opportunity to discuss or negotiate changes.

Benefits of a PPA

Benefits of a planning performance agreement (PPA) include:

• more access to our planning team
• flexibility to make adjustments to proposals
• more certainty about the progress of your application
• the option to use Hackney’s independent design review panel (where appropriate)
• speeding up and minimising risks associated with the planning process

Costs

We base fees on:

• the estimated time our planning officers would need to reach the stages set out in the agreed PPA timetable
• any extra meetings or work needed to move your proposal forward, such as major site reviews, pre-application sub-committees and design review panel sessions
• the average time and resources usually needed for developments of different sizes

If we think you’ll need a different level of resource, we can create a bespoke PPA and fee.