The planning reforms are encouraging councils to innovate and achieve efficiency, in response to local needs, by challenging traditional methods of service delivery and minimising waste.

One way for local planning authorities to meet this challenge is to develop systems for sharing legal services with other public bodies and the private sector. Provision of legal services is potentially one of the pressure points in the planning system. In order to cope with ever-increasing workloads, coupled with limited  staffing resources, authorities are often forced to outsource their legal work to high-cost external law firms.

At Camden LBC, our Legal Services Planning and Licensing team (Camden PLT) has developed a shared planning legal service that provides services for Hackney and Hounslow LBCs. It has provided huge benefits and is now looking to expand to work with other planning authorities.

The partnership's main external client has been the London Borough of Hackney. From 2002, Camden PLT has delivered significant elements of the planning legal service to Hackney, including – until recently – undertaking all ‘major' legal agreements under section 106 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 and planning inquiries. Camden PLT also dealt with overspills of Hackney's planning enforcement cases and prosecutions.  

Since 2006, Camden PLT has also had an arrangement with the London Borough of Hounslow to do their overspill planning legal work.
These arrangements have generated an income for Camden that can be used to subsidise other in-house services and the arrangements also provide huge benefits to the boroughs.

Where a planning authority does experience an overspill in legal work, it offers a better and cheaper alternative to private solicitors. As a local authority, Camden PLT charges a fraction of what most private sector firms charge. Furthermore, as PLT recovers fees for section 106 agreements, most of the cost to the external client is offset by fees recovered from private developers.

However, the rewards are far broader than just the cash benefits. For example:

For example, in March 2006 Camden approved – subject to a section 106 Agreement – development proposals for the main Kings Cross site, including commercial, housing, retail and education.

Camden PLT were involved in writing the lengthy Committee report and, with some private sector support, in settling a very complex section 106 Agreement. In 2007, the Kings Cross permissions were the subject of a Judicial Review by the Kings Cross Railway Lands Group.

Camden PLT were involved in successfully managing the proceedings with the High Court finding in the Council's favour and the Council being awarded costs.

Its shared legal service has been a great success and was shortlisted for The MJ Legal Achievement of the Year Award in 2007.

It is hoped that the lessons learned are of value to other authorities in seeking to change the traditional ways of working to meet challenges set by central government.

Camden PLT would now like to expand the service to work with other planning authorities inside and outside London. For further information, please contact Aidan.Brookes@Camden.gov.uk.