Controversial comments were made in the Conservative Conference this month, including the likes of the abolition of the Planning Inspectorate on final decisions and fears of greater community control. Here is a summary of the important discussions learned from last week’s conference in Manchester.
Johnson expressed his eagerness to ‘build the homes that young families need’ away from the South East and specifically not on greenfield sites. After looking at a map, the Prime Minister explained how much ‘room’ there is across England to build beautifully on brownfield sites, and not cram everyone into the South East. £58 million will be funded to 53 Local Authorities to help develop Brownfield Land.
Gove believes more is needed than simply a planning reform in order to build the number of homes required for this country. The Government need to be investing in regeneration of places and not just simply changing the system.
More focus on development in the North. The Government will now turn their focus to boosting house building in the North of England. Generation rent is even greater in some areas of the North than the South, therefore homes that people want to and can afford to live in must be built.
Gove reinforced Johnson’s statement of building on brownfield sites and said local communities will be able to take back control of their futures. Although having said this, Gove also failed to mention the word ‘planning’ once during his speech and refused to speak about the controversy of the planning reform.
The desire for localist policies and neighbourhood plans across England was expressed by the levelling up secretary. Many people feel disempowered after Brexit, therefore the determination for people to take back control has been demonstrated, starting with the formation of more neighbourhood plans.
Dowden explains the ‘rethink of the Planning Bill’. In contrast to the Queen’s speech made earlier this year, it has now been decided the White Paper that was due to go before parliament this year is now being completely re-considered due to its controversy on spoiling precious countryside with ‘ugly’ developments.
Despite the shake-up proposed to the Planning System, the Government are still determined to build the number of homes required.
The Government are still keen to allow for community consultation during the plan making stages. ‘We will never make plan-making – there will always be development that communities aren’t going to like’ he explained. However, it could be easier to deal with these issues at an earlier stage than the Develop Management stage.
The Housing Minister mentioned exploring the concept where residents create and ultimately given the opportunity to vote on one another’s designs for their local areas. This could be controversial in the eyes of some planners. With the lack of understanding, combined with the battle of NIMBYs today, the idea of putting the power and plans for future development into the hands of neighbourhoods could result in a deeper crisis than we are currently living.
Defra are considering boosting Natural England’s role in the planning process to help Councils with their level of scrutiny on developers’ environmental impact assessments and the way net biodiversity gain is calculated. Providing more funding for NE would be environmentally beneficial however, it has not been specified more job roles will be available to take on the increased workload. This could result in increased pressure for NE and a potential backlog in planning.
Comments were made by David Simmonds MP, saying that the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) should be abolished. PINS was described as a ‘hobby horse’ and Local Authorities should make the final decision. This will be considered outrageous by many, due to the Inspector making the final decision because they are independent to the local authority and have no affiliation to the case they are inspecting.
Overall, the main pointers to take from this conference still leave many in a great deal of uncertainty regarding the new Planning Bill and the future for local communities. In addition to this, there is now an added uncertainty on PINS as a result of some controversial views expressed by certain MPs.