Sustainable development in the National Planning Policy Framework : Oral and written evidence, Wednesday 12 October 2011, Neil Sinden, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Peter Nixon, National Trust, Dr Hugh Ellis, Town and Country Planning Association, Na
The National Planning Policy Framework 2012 sets out the Government's planning policies for England in achieving sustainable development and how these are expected to be applied. It sets out the requirements for the planning system only to the extent that it is relevant, proportionate and necessary to do so. It provides a framework within which local people and their accountable councils can produce their own distinctive local and neighbourhood plans, which reflect the needs and priorities of their communities. This Framework does not contain specific policies for nationally significant projects for which particular considerations apply. Divided into thirteen chapters, with three annexes, it looks at the following areas, including: building a competitive economy; ensuring town centre vitality; supporting a high quality communications infrastructure; delivering high quality homes; protecting the Green Belt; meeting the challenges of climate change, flooding and coastal change; conserving the natural and historic environments and facilitating the sustainable use of minerals.
The Committee invited submissions on how the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has worked in practice since it came into operation in April 2012. The evidence to this inquiry has highlighted a number of emerging concerns: that the NPPF is not preventing unsustainable development in some places; that inappropriate housing is being imposed upon some communities as a result of speculative planning applications; and that town centres are being given insufficient protection against the threat of out of town development. These issues do not, however, point to the need to tear up or withdrawn the NPPF; rather they suggest a need to reinforce its provisions and ensure it does the job it was intended to do.
This report recommends that a default answer of 'yes' to development should be removed from the National Planning Policy Framework (NPFF). The phrase 'significantly and demonstrably' must also be removed from the presumption that all planning applications should be approved unless the adverse effects 'significantly and demonstrably' outweigh the benefits, because it adds a further barrier to the achievement of truly sustainable development. The definition of 'sustainable development' is inadequate and often conflated with 'sustainable economic growth'. The framework gives the impression that greater emphasis should be given in planning decisions to economic growth, undermining the equally important environmental and social elements of the planning system. The NPPF should require local planning decisions to be taken in accordance with the presumption in favour of sustainable development consistent with Local Plans. It is unacceptable that so many parts of England have yet to develop and adopt a new Local Plan. Clarity within the NPPF has suffered in the pursuit of brevity. Inconsistent drafting could create gaps in planning policy or guidance that could lead to a huge expansion in the size of Local Plans - as local authorities attempt to plug those gaps. The test for 'viability', as currently worded, risks allowing unsustainable developments to go ahead if measures to make them sustainable are deemed to make them unviable for the developer. MPs also call for a sensible transition period to give local authorities time to put Local Plans in place where they have not already done so.
Interpreting the NPPF: the New National Planning Policy Framework aims to explain the revised NPPF to planners, developers and legal advisers throughout England. The book seeks to summarise the most important case law interpreting the previous NPPF, so far as is relevant to the new version. It provides an explanation of the legal status and nature of national planning policy law, as well as consideration of how the new NPPF should be interpreted. --from back cover.
The Localism Bill will devolve powers to councils and neighbourhoods and aims to give local communities more control over housing and planning decisions. It includes measures to reform the planning system, the provision of housing and a range of local authority governance issues. The Bill will abolish Regional Spatial Strategies (which set a regional-level planning framework for England) and will establish neighbourhood plans and neighbourhood development orders, by which it is intended that communities will be able to influence council policies and development in their neighbourhoods. The Government intends to introduce a 'presumption in favour of sustainable development' as set out in the Conservative Party's 2010 Green Paper 'Open Source Planning' and then in the Coalition Agreement. The presumption does not feature in the Localism Bill, although it will be included in a new National Planning Policy Framework. Evidence taken by the Committee highlighted a number of potential risks with the proposed reforms. These included: fairness in influencing neighbourhood development; monitoring the cumulative impacts of locally determined planning decisions; and the application of sustainability and climate change duties to neighbourhood planning. The Committee feels that the Localism Bill must provide a statutory duty to apply the principles of sustainability in the planning system and other functions of local government and provide a commitment to define the term 'sustainable development' in the planning context. This would include in the Bill the five internationally recognised principles of sustainable development as set out in the 2005 Sustainable Development Strategy. This should then be developed for the National Planning Policy Framework
This volume contains research from the 10th International Conference on Sustainable Development and Planning. The papers included in this volume form a collection of research from academics, policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders from across the globe who discuss the latest advances in the field. Problems related to development and planning, which affect rural and urban areas, are present in all regions of the world. Accelerated urbanisation has resulted in deterioration of the environment and loss of quality of life. Urban development can also aggravate problems faced by rural areas such as forests, mountain regions and coastal areas, amongst many others. Taking into consideration the interaction between different regions and developing new methodologies for monitoring, planning and implementation of novel strategies can offer solutions for mitigating environmental pollution and non-sustainable use of available resources. Energy saving and eco-friendly building approaches have become an important part of modern development, which places special emphasis on resource optimisation. Planning has a key role to play in ensuring that these solutions as well as new materials and processes are incorporated in the most efficient manner. The application of new academic findings to planning and development strategies, assessment tools and decision making processes are all covered in this book.
The making of planning policy is a major political and legal issue and there is currently a considerable focus by the government in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on local plan policy making. The current climate is characterised by government concern at the slow pace of local plan adoption in England, the controversial introduction of neighbourhood planning, new strategic planning tools with the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 and local development plans in Northern Ireland. Planning Policy is the only book dedicated to planning policy, both national and local and includes coverage of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. It covers the policy framework within which planning decisions are taken. It addresses how national and local policy is formulated, examined and challenged.
The built environment affects us all. The planning, design, management and maintenance of the built environment has a long-term impact upon people and communities. It is widely acknowledged that the quality of life, prosperity, health and wellbeing of an individual is heavily influenced by the 'place' in which they live or work. Policy towards the built environment in England is not the sole preserve of any one Government department; this both accounts for the diverse range of elements which comprise the 'built environment', and reflects the diverse range of impacts which it has upon people and communities. There is an urgent need to co-ordinate and reconcile policy across numerous different areas and priorities. Recently, however, one priority has become dominant in debates concerning built environment policy. Increasing the overall supply of housing, and the speed at which housing is delivered, is a central part of the Government's policy agenda. When seen in the context of the housing crisis facing many communities across England, this is understandable and, overall, we welcome the Government focus on increasing and speeding up the supply of housing. Restrictions on financial freedoms and flexibilities, however, pose a threat to the ability of local authorities to build houses of their own. The private sector, throughout the post-war period, has very rarely achieved the delivery of 200,000 homes a year. We do not believe the Government can deliver the stepchange required for housing supply without taking measures to allow local authorities and housing associations each to play their full part in delivering new homes. In addition, Government initiatives have so far failed to address a further part of the housebuilding problem, which is the gap between planning permissions granted and new homes built. We recommend measures intended to address this, and other, barriers to increasing the number of housing completions.
This supporting document to Budget 2011 (HC 836, ISBN 9780102971033) sets out the Government's plan for sustainable, long-term economic growth for the UK economy. It sets out four ambitions that underpin this objective, these are: to create the most competitive tax system in the G20; to make the UK one of the best places in Europe to start, finance and grow a business; to encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy and to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe. Growth review measures outlined in Chapter 2 cover these priority areas: planning; regulation; trade and inward investment; access to finance; competition; corporate governance; low carbon. The first phase of the review also examined eight sectors of the economy to remove the barriers to growth that affect them: advanced manufacturing; healthcare and life sciences; digital and creative industries; professional and business services; retail; construction; space; tourism.
