The New NPPF

Sir Keir Starmer said  local plans to reach the target was the starting point, but that the government would “absolutely push” development through if the plans do not work.

Absurd Targets and Democracy

Wiltshire, and many other rural counties, have been given absurd targets which show the total lack of Government understanding of rural issues. Some local planning authorities, like Wiltshire, will be facing undeliverable, nationally imposed targets, seismic change on the horizon and increasing pressure to deliver, leaving the door open to speculative developments in the wrong place – mostly, inevitably on greenfield sites where other options exist.

The other broadside from government has been to question the role of local planning committees – now added to the list of blockers along with bats and newts.

The Challenge

We recognise the challenge of the housing crisis and families stuck in temporary accommodation desperate for a home. But the problem is the shortage of genuinely affordable and social rent homes – homes that the market has never delivered without support and incentives to do so. We argue that better targets to solve the housing crisis should be targets in these areas – as well as targets for brownfield homes which has worked in the past to make the most of previously used land.

Environmental Issues

The Prime Minister also said “we want to get the balance right with nature and the environment, but if it comes to a human being wanting to have a house for them and their family, that has to be the top priority.”

Under environment law local authorities have a “biodiversity duty to consider actions they can take to conserve and enhance nature, which can be relevant to different area of their work, such as traffic and air pollution and all aspects of planning and development.

This is where there is an inherent conflict.

The Prime Minister’s words sparked a fierce challenge from environmental groups after he challenged planning regulations and regulators as “blockers to growth”.

This comes as concerns have grown among environmentalists that the Government will roll back regulations aimed at protecting nature in order to hit housebuilding targets which are central to its plan for growth.

CPRE think the changes put the countryside at needless risk, though there are some positives on affordable housing in the longer-term.

Speculative Development

We welcome the commitment to local plans and affordable homes. However, local authorities responsible for delivering new homes will be swamped with speculative applications on high-quality Green Belt and farmland which is the Open Countryside we are trying to protect.

Inevitably, many of these will be approved to meet nationally imposed targets.

The UK housing market is dominated by a cartel of large players in a way that is unique to this country. In the US and the rest of Europe for example, self and custom build account for at least 40 or 50% of new homes respectively, compared to a paltry 10% here. Whenever we built these kind of numbers in the past, most new homes were built by local councils.

The housing market we have favours delivery that maximises developers’ profits. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but when that’s your main tool for delivery of housing numbers, then the risk of more of the same is high.

That means more identikit, car dependent, unaffordable housing estates built on green fields (including the Green Belt) around towns already struggling with infrastructure.

Diversifying the market won’t happen overnight, so there’s a real danger that the victim will be needless loss of countryside.