Let's not pull any punches. The planning system is a joke. It is failing local people and local democracy. Our councillors are largely helpless in trying to make good and right planning decisions.
It is directly leading too many houses of the wrong type, in the wrong places, with the resulting loss of our irreplaceable Green Belt. And it’s doing nothing to address the real issue of housing accessibility or affordability.
Councils, like Basildon, are caught in a death-embrace that they can do little to get out of.
They are expected to deliver housing to a target that is double the real local housing need and are measured against that target when it comes to determining planning applications and appeals.
The planner's bible is the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Local authorities have to adhere to what the NPPF says when it comes to creating a new Local Plan or deciding a planning application.
Paragraph 11d of the NPPF states that if a local authority cannot meet one or more of the following conditions, then the presumption is in favour of allowing development even in the Green Belt. Planning Inspectors will apply these tests, it’s not just local planning officers.
1. An up-to-date Local Plan.
2. A 5-year land supply to deliver houses against the housing target.
3. A history of housing delivery against the housing target.
Developers know and exploit this. They raise such matters in their planning applications, and if a council rejects their application they will almost inevitably appeal, and the Planning Inspector is very likely to support their position due to those conditions.
It makes a mockery of local plan making and planning decisions. It is not democratic.
Despite Basildon council currently working on a new Local Plan, it will, in the immediate term, fail the 5-year land supply and housing delivery tests because the housing target is far too high. It's a vicious circle.
If the target was more appropriate such tests would be more easily met removing them as points of challenge by developers.
Arbitrary and excessive housing targets and paragraph 11d of the NPPF are therefore our worst enemies. They are at the root of all the challenges we face in protecting our Green Belt from development.
But there might be a glimmer of hope.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill goes back before Parliament on Wednesday 23 November. Theresa Villiers, supported by a number of equally concerned MPs from across the country, is proposing amendments to remove the top-down Government housing targets (something that Rishi Sunak has supported) and making changes to the NPPF to remove much of paragraph 11d.
We need our MP, John Baron, to support these amendments. We have written to him asking him to do so.
We ask you to do the same. Please write to.
[email protected]
There is no time to lose. Please do it now! He needs your comments by Wednesday 23 November.
It is directly leading too many houses of the wrong type, in the wrong places, with the resulting loss of our irreplaceable Green Belt. And it’s doing nothing to address the real issue of housing accessibility or affordability.
Councils, like Basildon, are caught in a death-embrace that they can do little to get out of.
They are expected to deliver housing to a target that is double the real local housing need and are measured against that target when it comes to determining planning applications and appeals.
The planner's bible is the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Local authorities have to adhere to what the NPPF says when it comes to creating a new Local Plan or deciding a planning application.
Paragraph 11d of the NPPF states that if a local authority cannot meet one or more of the following conditions, then the presumption is in favour of allowing development even in the Green Belt. Planning Inspectors will apply these tests, it’s not just local planning officers.
1. An up-to-date Local Plan.
2. A 5-year land supply to deliver houses against the housing target.
3. A history of housing delivery against the housing target.
Developers know and exploit this. They raise such matters in their planning applications, and if a council rejects their application they will almost inevitably appeal, and the Planning Inspector is very likely to support their position due to those conditions.
It makes a mockery of local plan making and planning decisions. It is not democratic.
Despite Basildon council currently working on a new Local Plan, it will, in the immediate term, fail the 5-year land supply and housing delivery tests because the housing target is far too high. It's a vicious circle.
If the target was more appropriate such tests would be more easily met removing them as points of challenge by developers.
Arbitrary and excessive housing targets and paragraph 11d of the NPPF are therefore our worst enemies. They are at the root of all the challenges we face in protecting our Green Belt from development.
But there might be a glimmer of hope.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill goes back before Parliament on Wednesday 23 November. Theresa Villiers, supported by a number of equally concerned MPs from across the country, is proposing amendments to remove the top-down Government housing targets (something that Rishi Sunak has supported) and making changes to the NPPF to remove much of paragraph 11d.
We need our MP, John Baron, to support these amendments. We have written to him asking him to do so.
We ask you to do the same. Please write to.
[email protected]
There is no time to lose. Please do it now! He needs your comments by Wednesday 23 November.
