Councils fear planning overhaul to boost housebuilding will weaken local voices
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner (Joe Giddens/PA) PA Wire Helen Corbett 3 minutes ago Councils fear that an overhaul of planning laws that aims to speed up housebuilding will weaken their voices and shift power to developers.
The County Councils Network said its members were concerned about the potential detrimental effect on rural areas of the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
Measures to streamline housebuilding in England were published on Monday, with default approval for homes built in “reasonable walking distance of well-connected stations”.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner rejected a suggestion that the shift to a “default yes” would give people already living in those areas less of a say.
CCN housing and planning spokesman Andrew Husband said: “We are concerned that these ‘one size fits all’ policies will have a detrimental impact on rural areas.
“Our members believe that the updated National Planning Policy Framework will weaken theirs and their local communities’ voices and shift the balance of power towards developers, increasing the risk of unsustainable development in locations that lack the necessary infrastructure and services.”
He said the Government had indicated protections would be given to local areas in some instances but it was not clear how this would work in practice.
He added that in many instances, national policy will override local plans and leave councils “unable to refuse development in locations that are not connected to existing settlements, resulting in homes being built in a piecemeal and unplanned way across the countryside”.
While the presumption of yes to development near railway stations would suit urban areas, he said, it could “permanently and dramatically change the character of a village”.
He added: “The disproportionally high housing targets in county areas and lack of checks for developers will only encourage more development, with local people unable to have a meaningful say.”
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Ms Rayner earlier said the country “cannot carry on” building houses and vital links separately.
The Government is just over a quarter of the way to its target to build 1.5 million homes in England in five years.
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