Landlord Orofena St John has been issued with a penalty for building a number of extensions and converting them into seven flats and two bedsits without planning permission.

Brent Council had issued St John, owner of 39 Clarendon Gardens, two enforcement notices in 2017. These required her to demolish the extensions and restore the premise back to one house.

The notices were ignored, so the council took the matter to court. In 2019 St John was convicted of breaching the notices, and the matter was referred to Harrow Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

These proceedings also revealed that St John was in breach of an enforcement notice issued to 13 The Paddocks, a property that had similarly been illegally converted into two homes. Rooms were being rented out to multiple students on a short-term basis without permission.

On 1 September, the court ordered St John to pay £111,582.57 for the income received from illegally renting the properties to tenants for a profit and she was fined £18,000 in council legal costs and £15,000 for the breach of the notices.

Shama Tatler, lead member for regeneration, property & planning at Brent Council, said: “This is a significant win for Brent. This penalty sends a clear message that people will not be allowed to get away with ignoring planning laws and renting out properties illegally.

“These laws are in place to protect our residents from being exploited in inferior accommodation and to ensure that Brent’s environment is a great place for everyone to live in.”

(Source: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/news/article/796/planning_news_-_30_september_2021)

Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary commissioned a report by Max Caller, a local government consultant who was in charge of carrying out an emergency inspection. The result was a damning on parts of the council. The report was ordered after the arrest of five men, including the Labour mayor, Joe Anderson, last December 2020. Anderson was arrested as part of Merseyside police’s “Operation Aloft”, an ongoing investigation into building and development contracts in Liverpool that led to the eventual arrest of 12 people.

It is believed to be the first time that a national government has directly intervened in the daily running of a city of this size. This in itself is politically sensitive due to the fact that Liverpool is one of the strongest Labour cities in Great Britain. The region provides 14 Labour MPs to Westminster. Liverpool last had a Conservative MP on the seat 38 years ago. The last Tory councillor lost his seat 23 years ago.

The unprecedented move comes after inspectors found strong indications of a ‘serious breakdown of governance’ on behalf of the Liverpool city council. Jenrick also said that an emergency inspection revealed a “deeply concerning picture of mismanagement”, an “environment of intimidation” and a “dysfunctional culture” at one of the biggest councils in Britain.
The commissioners who have been appointed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will be sent to “exercise certain and limited” functions of Liverpool city council for up to a period of 3 years under a controversial plan, arriving 6 weeks before the planned local elections.

Jenrick stated: “As a whole, the report is unequivocal: Liverpool city council has failed in numerous respects to comply with its best value duties. It concludes that the council consistently failed to meet its statutory and managerial responsibilities and that the pervasive culture appeared to be rule avoidance.” He also added “continued failure to correctly value land and assets, meaning taxpayers frequently lost out. When selling land, the report states that Liverpool city council’s best interests were not on the agenda,”

The city council is expected to accept the proposals emanating from the report in their entirety, meaning government commissioners would be drafted in with immediate effect. The number of councillors in Liverpool council will also be reduced from a total of 90, 72 of whom are members of the Labour party. There are also plans to change the election cycle, moving to a system of whole-council elections every four years.

Local elections will go ahead on the 6th of May and those politicians would then inform government about the best steps forward for the council with a view to not dictate but instruct. “We have given them the authority to act, should they need to, given the seriousness of some of the allegations but it is not our hope or expectation that those powers would be exercised.”
There was pressure on some of the Labour councillors to resign over the matter. Richard Kemp, the Liberal Democrat councillor and potential candidate for mayor, called for the resignation of all councillors connected to the scandal-hit departments. “This is a sad day for our city, which the people of Liverpool do not deserve.”

Rochdale Borough Council has published a masterplan for the delivery of 7,000 homes and 250,000 square metres of employment space along the Calder Valley rail corridor.

It outlines crucial redevelopment surrounding the borough’s five railway stations – Rochdale, Castleton, Smith Bridge, Littleborough and Mills Hills and forms part of the council’s next phase of regeneration.

The masterplan prioritises creating neighbourhoods on underused brownfield land that are close to local amenities and transport links.

A time-limited permitted development right has been published today, 9 April at 10:00 and will remain until 31 December 2020.

The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Coronavirus) (England) (Amendment) Order 2020 No. 412 with Explanatory Memorandum has been published on Legislation.gov.

The regulations provide a new time limited emergency permitted development right and supports health service bodies and local authorities’ immediate response to coronavirus.

The right is wide ranging, allowing for

• development by or on behalf of a local authority or health authority body for the purposes of preventing an emergency;
• reducing, controlling or mitigating the effects of an emergency; and
• taking other action in connection with an emergency.

The right enables development including, but not limited to, change of use for existing buildings and new temporary modular buildings. The right could be suitable to provide permission for a range of uses including use as:

• Hospitals
• health facilities
• testing centres
• coroner facilities
• mortuaries
• additional residential accommodation
• storage and distribution, including for community food hubs.

There is no application process, and health service bodies and local authorities who are not the planning authority are required only to notify the local planning authority of the use of the development on a site as soon as practicable after commencing development.  It is expected this will be by e-mail or in writing.

Source: Planning Portal