The British Property Federation has launched a guide to encourage reticent planners and developers to use planning performance agreements (PPAs).

Today, the BPF launched the government-backed guide to explain why PPAs help give developers more clarity and confidence about the planning process. The guide was written by law firm Denton Wilde Sapte to help councils and developers overcome concerns about PPAs. The government supported the use of PPAs in the 2008 Killian-Pretty review of planning, but take-up has so far been slow.

A PPA is an agreement between a developer, a local authority and potentially other players like English Heritage and the Environment Agency that sets out what each player will do and when.

The guide says benefits of PPAs include:

• establishing what scope there is in a scheme for collaborative working.
• helping parties set a realistic timetable for the size and complexity of the application, and defining key milestones.
• helping to identify potential problems.
• minimising the risks of a planning decision being taken to appeal.

Ian Austin, Parliamentary under secretary of state at Communities and Local Government said he hoped the guidance would encourage the use of PPAs: “We hope that the BPF guide, offering practical tips for taking forward PPAs, will encourage their greater use by the development community,” he said.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the BPF, agreed that PPAs should be more widely used: “They are a really useful tool, which used in the right circumstances, can deliver significant benefits for developers, local authorities and communities.”

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