Masterplan Consent Areas: guidance - impact assessments

Introduction

Masterplan Consent Areas (MCAs) are a new upfront consenting mechanism introduced by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 (the Act). Planning authorities will be able to use MCAs as part of a proactive, place-making approach to planning and consenting – enabling the type of development they wish to come forward in their places. MCAs will enable planning authorities to grant up-front consent for planned development, offering benefits to potential investors in terms of certainty and removing much of the risk.

The Act provides that planning authorities can prepare a MCA ‘scheme’, that can grant a range of types of consent, including planning permission, plus roads construction consent, listed building consent and conservation area consent – where provided for in the particular MCA scheme. Development that is in line with the MCA scheme could be brought forward without the need to apply for permission.

The process for making MCA schemes is included within:

• The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, as amended by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019;
• The Town and Country Planning (Masterplan Consent Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2024; and
• The Masterplan Consent Area Scheme (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2024.

The new non-statutory MCA guidance is designed to support planning authorities by bringing together and explaining the legislative requirements from the Act and the two sets of regulations. Any further detail in the guidance is based on the broad principles that were outlined within the legislation.