Press release from Wiltshire Conservatives regarding NPPF changes.
The Labour government’s new planning reforms are nothing less than a developers’ charter that drives a bulldozer through the concept of Plan-Led development combined with public input. Labour is reneging on its manifesto commitment to build 300,000 houses a year and increasing that to 370,000 houses, incidentally the same levels of building which the Liberal Democrats proposed.
They are proposing a new allocation system that will dump the large majority of these houses in green fields and, in some cases, green-belt sites in rural England. London and other cities however, will be allowed to continue building far below their fair share of housing despite having the greatest demand and more suitable infrastructure. By returning to the idiocy of the 5-Year Land Supply model, developers will be put even more firmly in the driving seat of deciding what is built where, resulting in more identikit cookie cutter developments built without necessary supporting infrastructure. The hard won requirement to make new developments ‘beautiful’ and not to build more soulless modern estates is being dropped. In Wiltshire this will result in an extra 23,385 houses built in a 15 year Local Plan period.
With the new Labour playbook, councils that fail to allocate housing will have planning taken over by Whitehall, a not unreasonable threat, yet with the re-imposition of the 5-Year Land Supply rules, developers will continue to be able to manipulate housing delivery, ensuring that rural authorities cannot meet their targets. In Wiltshire the deliberately slow development of some sites by developers has enabled them to argue that land supply targets have not been met, despite the council delivering 400 more houses a year than government targets required. The changes to the NPPF will make demonstrating sufficient housing supply by local authorities almost impossible (no matter what is actually delivered), thus opening up green fields and even the green belt to development, regardless of local views.
Furthermore, recognition of the value of our most productive farmland is set to be deleted from planning law. In a world where climate change makes our food supply from abroad increasingly precarious, and home-grown food more important (as the Ukraine war demonstrated), Labour is looking to build on the very land we need most in order to feed the country. With an increasing population, we must not just maintain but increase our ability to grow our own food, or we run a real risk of facing food shortages and sky high prices in the future.
In Wiltshire, housing targets are rising by 81%, from 1,917 houses a year to 3,476. Why should rural England be expected to build the houses that London cannot bring itself to build? Why should local communities lose their voice in the planning process?
To add insult to injury, Labour has put this plan out to consultation just as the country goes off for a summer holiday, ensuring that people don’t have a chance to properly comment. Unless we make our voices heard, responding to this consultation, we will come home from our holidays to find changes to planning policy sewn up and developers eying up fields around our villages to build on.
We will be responding as Wiltshire Conservatives to the consultation and we will share our response once it is ready. We would urge anyone who doesn’t want to see an intensification of development on the fields around their town or village to respond robustly; it is critical that we make our voices heard by government. You can respond to the consultation, which closes on the 24th of September, below.
Richard Clewer
Leader Wiltshire Council
For further information/questions please contact me at Richard.clewer@wiltshire.gov.uk or on 07980 756424