LGA RESPONDS TO GOVERNMENT ‘PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE’ PROPOSAL

Responding to the Government’s ‘Planning for the Future’ proposals to overhaul the planning system, Cllr James Jamieson, Chairman of the Local Government Association, said:

“Councils are committed to ensuring new homes are built and communities have quality places to live. It is vital that these are delivered through a locally-led planning system which gives communities the power to ensure new developments are of a high standard, built in the right places, and include affordable homes. We also need to ensure that new homes are supported by new funding for community infrastructure such as schools, playgrounds and roads.

“Nine in 10 applications are approved by councils with more than a million homes given planning permission over the last decade yet to be built. The system needs to ensure planning permissions are built. Any loss of local control over developments would be a concern. It would deprive communities of the ability to define the area they live in and know best and risk giving developers the freedom to ride roughshod over local areas.

“We will need to look properly at these proposals in detail, but councils share the aspiration of improving the current planning system to provide greater certainty for communities, encourage brownfield development , to deliver better infrastructure and increase local involvement.

“It is vital that Government fully engages with and takes advantage of the expertise in local government to ensure that their aspirations of an improved system works in practice. We look forward to responding to this consultation in detail and working with government to ensure any reforms improve the system and protect the rights of communities to shape the areas they live in.”.

“If we are to truly fix our chronic housing shortage, councils need the tools, powers and flexibilities to plan for and deliver the quality homes and places communities need.