Masterplan Consent Areas: guidance - impact assessments

Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA)

Title of policy, strategy or programme

Masterplan Consent Area Guidance (January 2025)

1. Develop a clear understanding of your objectives

The aim of the non-statutory Masterplan Consent Area (MCA) Guidance is to support planning authorities by offering more information to ensure there is a consistent approach when they prepare MCA schemes.

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced MCAs as a new upfront consenting mechanism. 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.

The following regulations cover the main process for making MCA schemes:

• The Town and Country Planning (Masterplan Consent Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2024
• The Masterplan Consent Area Scheme (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2024

The regulations provide additional procedural detail around the requirements set out in the 2019 Act for preparing MCAs across Scotland. The guidance is intended to bring together and explain the legislative requirements from the 2019 Act and the two sets of MCA regulations. Any further detail in the guidance is based on the broad principles that were outlined within the 2019 Act and the regulations.

MCAs are a flexible tool and could support a range of scales and types of development across Scotland - from small scale changes, up to major new developments. MCAs would effectively 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 the planning authority would prepare a MCA ‘scheme’, with scope to give 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.

2. Gather your data, identify your stakeholders and assess impact on islands

The proposals, as noted above, offer flexibility for local circumstances including island communities, in terms of the use and style of MCA schemes. We do not envisage that the provisions proposed will have significant, or different effects on island communities.

3. Consultation

Previous consultation and engagement on the Planning Bill included an island proofing exercise undertaken through a collaborative workshop, held on 29 September 2017. It informed the Island Communities Impact Assessment, which was updated following Stage 2 of the Planning (Scotland) Bill. That assessment indicated the main theme from discussions was the need to allow flexibility for the islands – acknowledging that their needs were very different to that of towns and cities.

A public consultation, on the Draft MCA Regulations, ran between 28 February 2024 and 22 May 2024 and 62 responses were received from planning authorities, key agencies, development, property and land management bodies, the third sector, professional representative bodies, as well as communities and individuals.

Respondents were generally supportive of the proposed regulations. The consultation sought views on the interim assessments and specifically sought further information to assist with finalising them, including the ICIA. A minority of the respondents to the consultation commented on the interim assessments, and no comments were relevant to the ICIA.

4. Assessment

We consider that the implementation of MCA guidance will not have a significantly different effect on island communities and therefore a full ICIA is not required.

5. Preparing your ICIA

Not required.

6. Making adjustments to your work

Not required.

7. Publishing your ICIA

ICIA completed by: Adam Henry, Senior Planner Signature: Adam Henry

Date completed: 08 November 2024

ICIA approved by: Dr Fiona Simpson, Chief Planner Signature: Fiona Simpson

Date approved: 04 December 2024