40 CONTEXT 184 : JUNE 2025 Law and policy update A village is not a historic town Alexandra Fairclough writes: Several statutes and policy documents with some relevance to the historic environment emerged in February and March. These can be read in the monthly Historic England Planning Bulletins. I have highlighted heritage law matters that may be of interest to practitioners and given references where available. Written ministerial statements A written ministerial statement dated 13 February 2025 stated that applications for development on Crown land should be submitted to either the Planning Inspectorate or the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, under provisions in the LevellingUp and Regeneration Act 2023 and relevant statutory instruments. Nationally important developments on Crown land should be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate directly, instead of to local planning authorities. Urgent nationally important Crown development should be determined by the secretary of state for housing, communities, and local government. A written ministerial statement emerged on 10 March relating to the possible reform of the statutory consultee system. The government intends to consult on the following: • Reducing the number of statutory consultees (including removing Sport England, the Theatres Trust and the Gardens Trust). • Reviewing the scope of all statutory consultees, to reduce the type and number of applications on which they must be consulted, and making better use of standing guidance in place of case-by-case responses. • Clarifying consultations, ensuring that local authorities consult statutory consultees only where necessary. Decisions should not be delayed beyond the 21-day statutory deadline unless a decision cannot otherwise be reached, or advice may enable an approval rather than a refusal. • Creating a new performance framework, in which the chief executives of key statutory consultees report on their performance directly to Treasury and MHCLG ministers. NPPF update The National Planning Policy Framework was revised on 7 February 2025 with regard to correct references of the footnotes 7 and 8, and amendments to the wording of paragraph 155 for clarification purposes, rather than changes to the revision of December 2024. Footnote 7 sets out various exceptions to grey belt, referencing designated heritage assets. Although Footnote 75 refers to non-designated heritage assets with a demonstrably equivalent significance to scheduled monuments, non-designated heritage assets are rarely identified but now cannot be discounted, especially in areas of high archaeological potential. The revised grey belt definition explains that to qualify as grey belt land, a site must either not fall within a Footnote 7 asset or area, or where it does fall within such an asset or area, the application of Footnote 7 policies must not include a strong reason for refusal (see also Planning Practice Guidance paragraph 006, reference ID 64-006-20250225). PPG updates Planning Practice Guidance updates confirm that when determining proposals for brownfield land within
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