By David Williams
23 February 2010
Conservative proposals to overhaul
England’s planning system have been met with scepticism from housing groups, which
claim the reforms could put affordable home development at risk.
Opposition leader David Cameron
launched the party’s green paper, Open source
planning, on February 22, proclaiming it potentially ‘one of the biggest
shifts in power for decades’.
Under the proposals, the current
Section 106 planning gain system, through which councils can oblige developers
to fund social housing development or other community amenities, would be
abolished.
Instead, the Conservatives want to
provide financial incentives for councils to build more social housing, and
introduce local housing trusts to provide more publicly owned affordable homes.
The National Housing Federation
welcomed the enhanced role for residents in setting strategic plans, and new
incentives for building social homes.
However, the body voiced a ‘major
concern’ at the proposals to scrap Section 106, estimating a possible 40%
reduction in the number of affordable homes built per year. Of the 162,000 planned
between 2008/09 and 2010/11, 64,000 were secured through Section 106.
Chief executive David Orr said: ‘The
proposal to scrap Section 106 and replace it with a tariff system requires a
leap of faith that the delivery of new homes will be maintained.’
He added that the incentives for
councils might not be robust enough, calculating they could add less than 1% to
a typical council’s budget.
Liz Peace, chief executive of the
British Property Federation, predicted the reforms would result in ‘housing
chaos’.
The green paper also proposes
scrapping regional planning authorities, instead allowing communities to set
development priorities in their area. It recommends stripping back
‘bureaucracy’ by presuming in favour of sustainable building projects, reducing
grounds for appeal against development, and throwing out house building
targets.
