Cummings and Jenrick’s planning law reforms will kill off the feudal rights of Parishes and the Darras Hall Committee

Councillor Allan Hepple a retired local government housing expert was interviewed by the Newcastle Chronicle this week where he correctly spoke about the r

emoval of democracy and the interests of the public from Councils through the planning process of the well publicised Dominic Cummings and Robert Jenrick’s led planning law reforms.

His article was very good in essence but simply scratched the surface of these reforms. They are huge and have already opened up a chasm between the ruling Tories and the Conservatives who put them in power. 

Conservative Home, which describes itself as the ‘home of the conservatives’ reported that Jack Airey, who until recently was Head of Housing at Policy Exchange, is now Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Housing when commenting on the forthcoming changes said “When renters pass over half their monthly income to their landlord, they should blame a planning system that protects existing property wealth at the expense of people who work hard and get on in life.”

These changes are not only for now, the Town and Country planning act was introduced just after the Second World War and has served the nation through its various levels of Government and pseudo baronies ever since. These reforms are to make planning fit the here and now and will like its predecessor last at least 70yrs.

The Tories are up for this change but they need to ask themselves how do they persuade the Conservatives who have invested heavily into the private rented sector to gain access to half of family incomes each month to follow their vision?

Also how do they believe they can capture the imagination of Parishes and virtually unelected feudal estate management groups who in the outline changes list pre white paper consultation will lose the power they have over anything but style.

The reason for that is the urgent need for truly affordable and social housing and a short term fix is to allow the unmitigated development of homes of multiple occupancy in any empty property to go ahead through the changes in permitted development rights until they can set up and organise the new ‘Regional Development Corporations’ who will work with and between local authorities and housing associations to develop new social housing which its hinted will include the ability for the purchase of current private rented stock from landlords, changing England to look more like its continental neighbours who this Government say they wish to forget? 

The consultation on the new white paper will be very active indeed and will throw up great opposition from interested parties who currently have power, wealth or income derived from the T&CP Act and can see that power shifting over to the spec builders and RDC’s working with County and Metropolitan councils away from the clutches of unelected groups, minor councils and open public debate.

For instance the change of County Towns to being classified as ‘Urban’ to suit the Oxford/Cambridge Arc type Development Corporations, will certainly pressurise Tory county councillors nationally in having to explain the need for that change by their Government to suit the 21’st century planning governance to their voters. 

But we Laymen who have discussed this issue among ourselves agree with Stephen Hawkins who said: ”We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet”. The changes to the T&C Planning act may cause some angst in the short term but hopefully the effect of the changes may help all levels of society shake off the shackles of the past and benefit everyone in the medium to long term.

Lets see what the white paper consultation brings!


 

Cummings and Jenrick’s planning reforms: a quick look at the headline statements

Homeownership

• Form partnerships with developers and local authorities to be the frontrunners for delivering the first wave of new homes
• Continue with the proposed First Homes scheme, which offers eligible first-time buyers new homes at prices discounted by a third

Planning reforms

• Introduce new permitted development rights for building upwards on existing buildings by summer 2020
• Consult on potential permitted development rights to allow vacant buildings to be demolished and replaced with new homes
• New support for community and self-build housing schemes, including support finding plots of land
• Restart Regional Development Corporations in England
• Support the Oxford-Cambridge arc by setting up a new spatial framework for the area, setting out where housing will be delivered up to 2050, and create four development corporations across the region

Housing Delivery Test

• Review the formula for calculating local housing need to encourage more building in urban areas and review the classification of rural/urban
• Require all local authorities to have an up-to-date local plan by 2023 or government will intervene
• Continue with plans to raise the Housing Delivery Test threshold to 75% in November 2020
• Reform the New Homes Bonus to ensure local authorities that build more homes have access to greater funding

Planning departments

• Implement new planning fee structure to better resource planning authorities and link funding to improved performance
• Provide automatic rebates of fees when planning applications are successful at appeal
• Expand the use of zoning tools to support development that is aimed at simplifying the process of granting planning permission for residential and commercial property
• Make it clearer who owns land by requiring greater transparency on land options
• Support local authorities to use compulsory purchase orders by introducing statutory timescales for decisions and ending the automatic right to public inquiry

Design

• Revise National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to encourage good design and placemaking throughout the planning process
• Respond to the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission and take forward recommendations calling for urban tree-planting and giving communities more influence over design
• Implement a new National Design Code to allow residents of communities to have more influence over design. Allow local areas to produce their own design codes for new development.

Climate and sustainability

• Review policy for building in areas at flood risk by assessing whether current NPPF protections are enough and whether further reform is needed
• Introduce Future Homes Standard in 2025, which will require up to 80% lower carbon emissions for new homes
• Create a new net zero carbon housing development in Toton in the East Midlands through a development corporation