LGA demands more time as National Trust savages government planning reforms

The Local Government Association has urged ministers to give councils an adequate and realistic amount of time to get their local plans finalised and approved.

The call was made after the National Trust launched a ferocious attack on the government’s planning reforms, claiming they would lead to “unchecked and damaging development in the undesignated countryside on a scale not seen since the 1930s” .

Planning Minister Greg Clark yesterday published the draft National Planning Policy Framework, which cuts the amount of policy from more than 1,000 pages to just 52. A key element of the new regime is a presumption in favour of sustainable development.

The National Trust said the tone and language of the draft NPPF was “wrong on several counts”. It argued that:

• The reversal of development controls in the public interest came at too high a price. “The NPPF’s concept of sustainable development puts too little weight on benefiting people and the environment”
• The removal of much detailed guidance to local authorities leaves too much power in the hands of developers “who will only need to show that their proposals will deliver growth for other important considerations – for example impact on communities, nature and landscape, and the environment – to be pushed aside”
• Local people would have to rely on a development plan to protect what they treasure and shape where development should go. “Yet only some local authorities have development plans in place and many local authorities and neighbourhood groups do not have the resources and specialist skills to create plans that genuinely integrate social, environmental and economic considerations.” Under the government’s proposals if there is no up to date development plan, planning applications will automatically get consent.

Fiona Reynolds, National Trust Director-General, said: “The government’s proposals allow financial considerations to dominate, and with this comes huge risk to our countryside, historic environment and the precious local places that people value.”

She insisted that the NT shared the government’s commitment to localism, but felt it had got the changes on planning wrong. “We urge a rethink of the NPPF before we throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Reynolds added.

The National Trust claimed that the reforms sounded the death-knell to the principle established in the 1940s that the planning system should be used to protect what is most special in the landscape, creating a tool to promote economic growth in its stead.

In response, Cllr David Parsons, Chairman of the Local Government Association's Environment Board, said: "Local authorities always strive to protect the areas of natural beauty and greenbelt treasured by so many and we do not believe anything in the government’s draft planning policy framework will prevent them from doing so in future.

"Local plans in every area of the country, drawn up in consultation with communities, will clearly set out which land is suitable for development, and what is appropriate to be built there. There should be no scope for unwanted surprises.”

Cllr Parsons added: "This is why we will be stressing to government the importance of ensuring all local authorities have an adequate and realistic amount of time to get their plans finalised and approved."

The Department for Communities and Local Government meanwhile disputed the National Trust’s claims.

A DCLG spokesperson said: "This is plain wrong. The draft policy framework fulfils the commitment in the coalition agreement to protect the Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There are similarly strong protections for the historic environment, which have been welcomed by heritage bodies. These protections are crystal clear in the document.

"In fact the policy framework gives communities a brand new opportunity to protect those green spaces outside of the Green Belt that are of particular special value to the community.”

The DCLG also said there was a “strict” test that all new growth must be sustainable.

“Where it is consistent with environmental objectives - including maintaining the Green Belt - proposals should proceed without delay,” the spokesperson said.

They added: "These reforms allow local people to participate in planning. Having 1000 pages of planning policy made policy less clear and excluded communities."

Philip Hoult