By Richard Johnstone | 26 July 2011
The government confirmed that it plans to introduce a presumption in favour of sustainable developments as it launched its new national planning policy.
The Draft National Planning Policy Framework confirms the new priority, with the government saying it is ‘committed to ensuring that the planning system does everything it can to support sustainable economic growth’, and not act as an impediment.The presumption in favour of sustainable development is the ‘golden thread’ that will run through both plan-making and decision-taking in planning, says the report, which is now open to consultation until October 17.
The plan also introduces neighbourhood planning, where a community will be given powers to plan for the areas where they live by setting a vision for developments. This includes setting planning policies for land-use and giving planning permission for specific developments through Neighbourhood Development Orders.
The plan states that the ‘application of the presumption will have implications for how communities engage in neighbourhood planning’. Neighbourhoods will be advised to develop plans that ‘positively’ support the development needs set out by councils in local plans, including policies for housing and economic development.
An independent examiner must assess a neighbourhood plan before it can then go to a local referendum, ensuring it is compatible with both the national and local plans.
Planning minister Greg Clark said that the draft NPPF aims to open up planning from being the preserve of specialists to people in communities.
He said: ‘By replacing over a thousand pages of national policy with around fifty, written simply and clearly, we are allowing people and communities back into planning.
The Local Government Association said that councils would welcome a more streamlined planning system.
David Parsons, chair of the Local Government Association’s environment board, said: ‘Cutting down the 2,500 pages of planning rules and putting in their place something far more concise and efficient will reduce a burden on local authorities and developers.’
He said that the LGA will soon put forward its own proposals on how the NPPF can be implemented in a way that gives councils a realistic amount of time to get their local plans finalised and approved.
Parsons added: ‘We urgently need to get Britain building again. In doing so we must ensure that both residents and people in need of housing have a powerful voice to express the type of development they would like to see.
‘The planning framework should ensure that new housing and commercial buildings match the economic, environmental and social needs of a particular area. We need to see a balance struck between encouraging new building, and ensuring that large-scale new development comes with the infrastructure necessary to support it.’
