Planning reforms: less local control

A major analysis by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) of how the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is being implemented during its first year is published today (Monday 18 March). The emerging evidence raises significant concerns about whether the reformed planning system is capable of securing development the country needs and preventing damaging schemes in the wrong locations. 

The new report Countryside Promises: Planning Realities highlights that the views of local communities are being overruled time and again, with major new housing development being allowed to sprawl across precious countryside. A summary is available here: http://bit.ly/XzAEeo

Launching the report, CPRE Chief Executive Shaun Spiers said: "CPRE has closely observed how the NPPF is being implemented on the ground and what we have seen is deeply disturbing. Despite the rhetoric of localism, it now seems that local communities are increasingly powerless to prevent damaging development even in the most sensitive locations.

"The country badly needs more housing, including affordable housing in rural areas. But we will not get housing on the scale we need without popular consent, and there will be no popular consent unless local communities believe that that they are being listened to and that the planning system is minimising the loss of much-loved green fields.

"Our evidence suggests that the NPPF is being used to impose unnecessary greenfield developments in the teeth of local opposition. Brownfield sites are being overlooked in favour of building on green fields that are easier for developers. At the same time, developers are providing less and less affordable housing to meet local needs."

Shaun Spiers concluded: "When the Government introduced its planning reforms last year it promised that the local plan would be the keystone of the planning system, and that the intrinsic value and beauty of the countryside would be recognised. Instead, we are seeing that applications for new housing are being approved regardless of their impact on local areas including developments in some of our most treasured countryside such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

"We know that Planning Minister Nick Boles wants good quality, beautiful development, but his policies are not delivering. There can be no sustainable solution to this country’s housing problems unless there is a renewed focus on improving quality, increasing local control and minimising the loss of countryside. The NPPF is not currently delivering that mix. The Government urgently needs to rethink its approach."