Member News
6th June 2011
As the Localism Bill enters the House of Lords, rural champions, the Campaign to Protect Rural England express concerns that the Bill in its current form will fail to deliver the government's commitment to empower local communities and promote sustainable development.
Second reading of the Localism Bill in the House of Lords takes place on Tuesday 7 June. The coalition agreement set out to radically reform the planning system to 'give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which they live' and 'to protect the environment'. Yet, in the Budget, with little solid evidence, the chancellor branded planning a 'chronic obstacle to economic growth' and called for a 'default yes to development'.
Campaigners fear that unless the Lords can restore the original purpose of the planning reforms, and secure a fair and transparent system that delivers genuinely sustainable development, local people's voices will go unheard and environmentally damaging development will result.
Fiona Howie, head of planning for CPRE, says: "A powerful development lobby appears to have convinced some ministers that planning system is stopping them building what they want and therefore preventing economic recovery. This is undermining the commitment in the coalition agreement to give local people more say over what's built in their neighbourhood.
"It's wrong to assume local people don't know or want what's best for their area. It is also incorrect to presume unrestricted development leads to sustainable, long term economic growth. It is more likely to deliver short term profits to developers, local opposition and long term environmental damage. The members of the House of Lords now have an opportunity to get the government's planning reforms back on track.
"To do so peers need to reassert the wider role of planning in securing necessary development while protecting the environment and involving local communities effectively in the process."
To ensure that the planning reforms deliver genuinely sustainable development, empower local people and protect the environment, public confidence in the planning system needs to be rebuilt. To achieve this CPRE wants the Localism Bill to:
- Reinforce the role of the planning system in securing development in the long term public interest and safeguard the principle that planning permission should not be unduly influenced by financial considerations;
-Re-balance the appeals system by giving communities a limited right to challenge the approval of applications that go against locally agreed plans;
-Provide communities with a stronger system to protect assets of community value by including a first right of refusal for them as part of the 'community right to buy';
-Ensure that neighbourhood planning is open and accessible to the whole community and does not prioritise economic interests over environmental and social well-being.
The CPRE have produced a briefing ahead of the second reading of the Localism Bill in the House of Lords.
Article Comments
At the Woodland Trust we share many of the concerns expressed by the CPRE. We believe that the Coalition Government can help deliver on its promise to be the greenest ever by ensuring that the Localism Bill:
1.) defines sustainable development on the face of the Bill;
2.) includes a clear, transparent and enforceable duty that empowers local authorities to co-operate with each other across their respective administrative boundaries;
3.) ensures that neighbourhood plans are fair, transparent and in conformity with environmental guidance at a national level and in the appropriate Local Development Framework. The process must be inclusive, accessible and accountable;
4.) enacts a limited public (third party) right of appeal;
5.) empowers the planning system to integrate the delivery of environmental, economic and social objectives.
Lee Bruce
6th Jun 2011 at 5:38 pm
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