Scrap heat pump and solar planning rules, urges thinktank

Planning rules on the installation of rooftop solar panels and heat pumps should be scrapped, a new report by an influential right-wing thinktank has urged.

The Policy Exchange’s report, Re-engineering regulation: an A-Z of reform, outlines 26 case studies of regulation with “unintended, perverse consequences”.

In relation to heat pumps, the report highlights existing rules that stipulate planning permission must be secured for heating systems if they are installed less than one meter away from a house or block of flats.

It says this rule, introduced to reduce the potential noise or vibration gas boilers cause for neighbouring residents, can make installing heat pumps difficult in some types of properties or unattractive, especially if they encroach into gardens.

However the report says heat pumps, particularly newer models, are no more noisy than a standard fridge and the planning requirements can add considerable delay and expense to their installation.

It recommends scrapping the one meter boundary requirement for installing heat pumps so they should no longer require planning permission.

The report also highlights many instances, particularly in flats and maisonettes, where planning permission is required for households to have a photovoltaic (Pv) panel fitted onto their homes.

Planning permission, which the report says adds delay and expense to the process of installing solar panels, should be scrapped for this technology on almost all buildings, except for those which are listed.

Together with a requirement for new builds to have Pv panels installed as standard, easing these planning restrictions will help to drive up solar energy generation, according to the report.

The paper also recommends unblocking the consent process for onshore wind farms by easing the National Planning Policy Framework’s requirement that concerns of local communities should be “fully” addressed.

More broadly, the report recommends that each regulator should have a dedicated board-level executive with responsibility for developing smarter regulation and championing the interests of the regulated.

Accountable via an annual report to Parliament, these executives could create an “active and effective feedback loop” between regulators and the regulated.

The report concludes: “Regulatory reform often constitutes the ‘slow boring of hard boards’. But it is work that we can no longer afford to put off as a country. As this report makes abundantly clear, the time for concerted action is now.”

The report has been published as part of the Policy Exchange’s wider Re-engineering Regulation project, which is chaired by former Cabinet permanent secretary Lord Sedwill.