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The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is the key document that manages how local plans are prepared. The Guildford Society has now submitted its reply to the Ministry of Housing on the proposed changes to the document. Our reply can be seen at link at foot of the post.
The NPPF is a Framework document and it has links to other other critical planning processes and documents. The government has published changes to the NPPF for consultation but has yet to provide detail on various supporting processes and policies.
These include:-
A) Economic Strategy for the UK
This due at the end of October
B) Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP)
This already exists but is due to operated by a new organisation the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA)
There will be simplified Consent Processes for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, proposals due in a Planning & Infrastructure Bill yet to be published.
C) Spatial Development Strategies (SDS)
These will be revived in Engalnd. Proposed to be managed by Mayoral, and Unitary Authorities, How conventional County Councils (Like Surrey) operate is still to be determined. The Scope and Format of the SDS has yet to be confirmed. Note SDS's potentially have a significant impact as they could be the mechanism to regionally allocate housing numbers and their location.
D) Supporting NPPF Changes
Legislation will be bought forward proposals due in a Planning & Infrastructure Bill yet to be published for:
E) Planning Passports
Recently announced is the proposal to have planning passports for inner city areas that would allow for automatic approval for housing that meets design and qulaity standards. (It will be interesting to see how these are designed and control and whether they are extended to other areas)
F) New Towns Taskforce
This has been established to propose site for a series of new towns, and urban extensions.
As we comment in the answers, we believe strongly that Permitted Development Rights (PDR’s) are damaging the planning system and making local plan making difficult to administer and manage. They should be integrated and controlled via the NPPF.
Although we understand the desire to have a simple measure of housing demand as a basis for plan making, we suggest that the method needs to be validated as to its appropriateness against a variety of Local Planning Authorities.
We believe what the Grey Belt definition is seeking to achieve is not clear, and could be dangerous in distracting from the need to develop Brownfield Sites.
The NPPF is very focused on the need to add sites for housing, using a simplistic Standard Method. The government is proposing to re-instate Spatial Development Strategies for yet to be defined areas. We believe Spatial Development Strategies need to be implemented quickly, to ensure Local Plans relate properly to an agreed view as to how the economy will be balanced and unsustainable overdevelopment avoided.
The NPPF makes no mention to the New Towns Taskforce. How the recommendations are to be integrated into local Plans (by Spatial Development Strategies?) is not clarified.
These have been announced by the Prime Minister. How these relate to the NPPF needs to determined. The planning system needs to be kept simple not subject to endless add-ons which destroy the value of Local Plans and the involvement of local communities.
We are happy to see this terminology removed, we believe Quality should be a aspiration for our building development encompassing Design, Setting, Building Standards, Environmental Footprint etc.
The Society is concerned that these changes have been rushed through to support a 1.5Million housing target with little real consideration of what the planning system is seeking to achieve. The planning system should be aimed at achieving high quality development in the appropriate places. Appropriate places should include regenerating areas of the country which have fallen behind.
Although the planning suytem is blamed for holding up housing development it should be appreciated that whether the construction industry has the capabilities to build circa 300,000 dwellings a year must be in doubt. The last time 300,000 p.a. dwelling were achieved was when the Local Authries were funding circa 120,000 dwellings a year. This was achieved using state funding. Is finance available to build on the scale required.
The current planning system has evolved with myriad changes, is it time to have full revision and simplification?
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