By Vivienne Russell
23 September 2010
Communities in rural areas hoping to develop their own housing projects will need to win the support of 75% of voters, housing minister Grant Shapps has confirmed.
The Community Right to Build is to be included in the forthcoming Localism Bill. It will allow rural communities wishing to build housing developments to bypass the usual planning application stage.
However, Shapps said any proposals given the green light will have to comply with minimum planning criteria.
In its consultation on the scheme, the Department for Communities and Local Government had proposed that any schemes going ahead should win the approval of 90% of local people, but the consultation revealed ‘a strong preference for a lower threshold’.
Making the announcement yesterday, Shapps said: ‘Those plans that get 75% support in local referendums will no longer need to go to the town hall for approval – instead, work can begin much more quickly.
‘I’ve listened to the views of the public that responded strongly to our consultation, and I believe this threshold strikes the right balance between enabling communities to go ahead with their plans for expansion, while at the same time ensuring the support of the overwhelming majority of the wider community.’
A spokeswoman for the Campaign to Protect Rural England said the planning system needed to be reformed and made more democratic but ‘bypassing the planning process is not the way to deliver it and any proposals should include proper planning scrutiny’.
She added: ‘The level and location of development should be informed by a proper assessment of local housing need and an understanding of whether the local environment can accommodate more development. This capacity should be assessed through democratic local plans and not a simple public ballot.’
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the Town and Country Planning Association, said: 'We welcomes the reduced threshold for the Community Right to Build referendums from 90 to 75%.
'However, while these trusts are kept outside the planning system they still pose the risk of becoming a right to block rather than a right to build. Given the radical reforms proposed to the planning system to develop strong bottom-up community and local plans and the need to consider strategic issues such as employment, infrastructure and amenities, the focus needs to be on getting this process right first. If local plans have community buy in and the right to build programmes take place within the planning system then this will reduce costs and adversarial processes.'
