Council planning committees to get their wings clipped

Taking planning permission powers away from elected representatives and giving them to council staff is one of the options in a consultation paper from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.

The Planning Reform Working Paper: Planning Committees sets out a range of options that the ministry is considering, including training for councillors on planning committees and smaller planning committees.

But the nuclear option set out in the paper is the further erosion of local democratic accountability on decisions about what gets built where.

The paper suggests that “all applications should be delegated to officers unless specific circumstances apply. This could mean all applications must be delegated to officers unless:

1. the application is a departure from the development plan and is recommended by officers for approval; or
2. the application has been submitted by the local planning authority, its members or officers.”

Another option is that elected council members would still have to vote on more sensitive decisions, such as developments on green belts, where the government is also keen to see reform.

All of the options put forward for discussion are designed to get councils to say yes more often and more quickly. The clear message is: If this means handing authority to professional town hall bureaucrats instead of amateur elected members, then the democratic deficit can go hang.

The Planning Committees document is the first working paper for the planned Planning & Infrastructure Bill. It is available at www.gov.uk

Separately, under changes to the national planning policy framework (NPPF), a new approach to the greenbelt is planned. “While remaining committed to a brownfield first approach, the updated NPPF will require councils to review their greenbelt boundaries to meet targets, identifying and prioritising lower quality ‘grey belt’ land,” the Ministry of Housing said. “Any development on greenbelt must meet strict requirements, via the new ‘golden rules’, which require developers to provide the necessary infrastructure for local communities, such as nurseries, GP surgeries and transport, as well as a premium level of social and affordable housing.”

Secretary of state for housing Angela Rayner said: "I will not hesitate to do what it takes to build 1.5 million new homes over five years.”

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