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.
