Wiltshire Council leader slams Labour’s new planning reforms
Deputy PM Angela Rayner announced changes to planning rules earlier this week
The leader of Wiltshire Council has branded the Labour government’s new planning reforms as “nothing less than a developers’ charter” released “just as the country goes off for a summer holiday.”
Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner announced an overhaul of the planning system on Tuesday, July 30, to “get Britain building again.”
Councils have been given new, mandatory housing targets and must boost housebuilding in areas most in need.
Although the first port of call for development will be brownfield land, the plans will also facilitate building on low-quality green belt land, set to be reclassified as “grey belt”.
The annual target would be increased from 300,000 homes to just over 370,000, and the rules will require 50% of new housing to be affordable “with a focus on social rent”.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: “Today marks a significant step to getting Britain building again.
“Our decisive reforms to the planning system correct the errors of the past and set us on our way to tackling the housing crisis, delivering 1.5 million homes for those who really need them.
“And something I am personally proud of, our new flexibilities for councils will boost the number of social and affordable homes, and give working families a better route to a secure home.”
However, leader of Wiltshire Council Richard Clewer has stated that the reforms drive “a bulldozer through the concept of plan-led development combined with public input.”
He said: “They are proposing a new allocation system that will dump the large majority of these houses in greenfields 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.”
Cllr Clewer added: “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.”
Cllr Clewer also claims that recognition of the value of productive farmland is set to be “deleted” from planning law, placing the country’s food supply at risk of shortages and high prices.