Court issues warning over planning rules shake-up as new system is set to given the green light

Published 27th Mar 2012

* Government insists green belt will remain protected
* 1,300 pages of planning guidance to be slashed to 50
* Planning red-tape costs the economy £3bn a year


Dramatic reform of Britain’s planning system is to be given the green light today - despite bitter opposition from the National Trust and conservation groups.

Sources last night said the final version of the long-awaited National Planning Policy Framework would be ‘unashamedly pro-growth’ when it is published today.

However, the Government has insisted that the green belt will remain protected.

Planning Minister Greg Clark said protection of the green belt and putting high streets and town centres first are national requirements which protect everyone.

'Over and above that, I think the people that live in the places and work in the places that they love actually do have an interest in wanting them to thrive in the future - they want them to retain the character that sometimes they have lost through development being imposed from above,' he told BBC Breakfast.

Ministers believe the changes will ‘unblock’ the notoriously bureaucratic planning system, which is blamed by business for costing the economy £3 billion a year.

Mr Clark last night said the changes would help deliver ‘the homes and jobs we need’.

A draft version of the plans led to a storm of protest last year led by the National Trust, which warned they lead to Los Angeles-style urban sprawl.

Campaigners claimed that slashing 1,300 pages of planning guidance built up under Labour to just 52 would create a planning free-for-all.

But despite the protests the final version of the reforms goes even further in slashing deregulation - cutting the guidance to just 50 pages.

The decision to retain the pro-growth slant looks certain to provoke a fresh round of protests by conservationists.

Some Tory MPs are also nervous they could face a public backlash if the reforms result in a rash of inappropriate development.

Ministers insist they never had any intention of allowing developers to concrete over the countryside, and the final document does contain a small number of ‘clarifications’ designed to reassure critics.

These include requiring councils to encourage so-called brownfield sites to be brought back into use before fresh permission is granted to build on green fields.

The new guidance will also explicitly recognise the ‘intrinsic value and beauty of the countryside’. Designated beauty spots, such as national parks, had already been promised ‘robust protections’, as had Green Belt land.

And there will be an explicit recognition of the importance of town centres, although businesses in rural communities should also be ‘free to expand’.

But the new document retains the controversial new ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’, which means planners will have to allow development unless it is against the public interest.

Last night Mr Clark said: ‘Over the years, the planning system has become impossibly complex.

It was never intended that national planning policy should expand to 1,300 pages of often impenetrable jargon in 44 separate documents. But that is what has happened.

‘As the British Chambers of Commerce put it “the system is too complicated, too costly and too uncertain. It creates mistrust among business and holds back our recovery.”

‘The new planning system will be accessible to all - not only the specialists. It will emphasise the role of the planning system in supporting sustainable growth - providing the homes and jobs we need.

'We will establish a presumption in favour of sustainable development so that development is not held up unless to approve it would be against our collective interest.

‘And we will guarantee robust protection for our natural and historic environment, and seek net improvements to put right some of the degradations of the past.’

Ministers believe the streamlined planning system - which abolishes dozens of top-down targets - will hand back control to local communities.

Campaigners warned last night that failure to provide clear protections for the environment could lead to challenges in the courts.

Craig Bennett, of Friends of the Earth, said: ‘A strong planning system is vital for building the clean economy promised by Government, but there are mounting concerns that ministers will unleash a building free-for-all that will infuriate local communities and devastate our countryside.’

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) also warned that protection for green belt land could be unintentionally weakened by the new policy.

It raised concerns that the definition of 'sustainable development' was too vague to govern planning policy in the draft proposals and local plans, which set out what development councils want in their area, could give way to a 'free for all'.

The Countryside Alliance said local people in the countryside wanted affordable housing and for rural businesses to be able to expand - and that they were the best placed to decide what development was appropriate and what should be opposed.

Ministers insist the changes are essential to Britain’s economic recovery.

Chancellor George Osborne warned last week that some firms had been deterred from investing in the UK because of the planning system - a situation he described as ‘unacceptable’.

House building has also fallen to a record low in recent years, with many developers blaming the planning system.

Source: ' ThisIsMoney '

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