The status of the Checklist

The Checklist has been updated to take into account national and regional policy changes and the introduction of new tools since its launch in 2007, such as CABE’s Building for Life standards and the new BREEAM Communities tool.

The emerging Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for the West Midlands endorses using the Sustainability Checklist in Policy SR3:

“ensuring that Design and Access Statements include a sustainability statement that has regard to the contents of the West Midlands Sustainability Checklist. This should demonstrate that at least the ‘good’ standards and wherever possible the ‘best practice’ standards are achieved for each category”.

Policy SR3 goes on to state that “appropriate targets should be set for substantial developments (over 10 residential units or 1,000 square metres) through dialogue between Local Planning Authorities and developers in AAPs, or through a planning brief or masterplan approach”.

The Secretary of State will consider the Panel Report recommendations before publishing his Proposed Changes to the draft Phase 2 Revision in 2010. The Proposed Changes document and a statement identifying each of the proposed changes together with the reasons, will be made available on the Government Office and West Midlands Leaders Board websites together with a further statement advising where and when these documents will be available for inspection.

Regional partners are currently developing arrangements to take forward the recommendations of the Review of Sub-National Economic Development (SNR) for the introduction of a Single Integrated Regional Strategy to deliver a sustainable West Midlands. This will incorporate or directly reference the approved RSS policies.

The following local Planning Authorities have made the Checklist a mandatory tool that a developer or any applicant must complete in order to submit a planning application:

• Wolverhampton