Cllr Allan Hepple, the Northumberland Labour Group’s shadow cabinet member for housing and planning, said: “In Northumberland, local people and some 150 town and parish councils will no longer have any say or influence on planning applications in their area through their local council. The Government has robbed them of their long-held rights.
The New Government
White Paper forces 885 new homes per year on Northumberland and removes
decision making from Councils leaving neighborhood
planning by Town and Parish Councils abandoned and the former Tory
Localism Act discarded.
Under the new plans
being rolled out from the Conservative Government last week and now out to
consultation, Northumberland will have to find land which will allow builders
to develop areas one and a half times the size of the Town of Newbiggin by the
Sea every 10 years.
Councils will not
pick up any real contributions towards the building of Council Housing or help
Housing Associations develop new stock in Northumberland, damaging the hopes of
the young to get a safe home over their heads from a quality landlord.
The Conservative administration at County Hall scrapped the former core
strategy in May 2017 to halt any development in and around Ponteland in order
to maintain house prices for the wealthy. They then went on to try but fail to
produce a new local plan following statements from their Leader Cllr Peter
Jackson that he could have one in place in three months. Three years on and its
still not ready but the work they have done dumps the majority of development
smack bang in the South East of the County and the rural coalfield attempting
to concrete over the area where more than 50% of the population already dwell
in 4% of the County Area.
This week following
criticism from Labour the Council ran out the note below.
It doesn’t help
ordinary people at all!
Planning White Paper
The Government have issued
a new planning White Paper last week. There are some significant and complex
changes. These have been summarised below:
Substantial
changes to future Local Plan. Requires a new approach to designating land.
Depending on when the white paper is enacted, we will talk to PINS about
implications for current work.
- Land will
have to be designated as either a growth area, renewal area or for
protection. Depending on its designation, there are impacts for planning
approvals.
- May impinge
on Local Plan review. We will also need to discuss the role of a new
approach for the Blyth area to best support the port/energy catapult etc
- A new
interactive approach to developing the Local Plan which will include a
visual and map based approach. We are already involved in a national project
on this.
- A new
statutory timetable for preparing and reviewing local plans (30 months)
will be introduced by the legislation which would result in significant
impacts for the Council if they fail to achieve the timescales. Additional
resources may be required to ensure the Council achieves the 18 -20 month
timetable for preparing a plan. Threat of intervention if timescales are
missed.
- A new
approach for engagement for the Local Plan’s – Government requires more
engagement but to be achieved in shorter timescales. More engagement on
plan making, less at application stage.
- A new NPPF
which will set out national development management policies, removing this
responsibility from the Council. The Council will have potentially less
opportunities to influence local policies in the area
- Publishing
new guidance to set out how new homes will be zero carbon through the
introduction of efficiency standards, beyond 2025.
- Reforming
the Community Infrastructure Levy and the current system of planning
obligations to a nationally set, value-based flat rate charge. Need to
understand how this will impact us and if the national set tariffs could
result in further viability issues above those discussed at the EIP.
- A real
positive of a standardised tariff however is that permitted development
schemes will be expected to contribute towards infrastructure – where
currently they don’t.
- Council can
borrow against future tariff payments to frontload infrastructure.
- No Duty to
Cooperate requirement in the future, but clearly we will want to via the
North of Tyne Combined Authority.
- Removing
requirement for five year land supply. The Housing Delivery Test will be
used in its place. Either can work for us
- New
Sustainable Development Test replaces existing soundness tests
- A
standardised housing required for each Local Planning Authority – this
could reduce aspirations for housing delivery – we need to ensure that the
government makes this a minimum
- As
anticipated, there is more emphasis on urban design.
- More
responsibility for the Council to prepare Design Code for development
which will have to be actively consulted on again with the community. This
is in motion.
- A fast track
system will be introduced to automatically permit proposals for
high-quality developments where they reflect local character and
preferences. Unclear how this will be achieved in practice.
- Introduction
of new standardised process for planning decisions and contributions . In
addition, there will be the introduction of new software for making and
case-managing a planning application. This will have implications for
Council IT systems. We are already involved in a MHCLG national pilot on
this (with Lambeth).
- More powers
for authorities to secure affordable homes on site via the new
infrastructure levy.
- In terms of
development management, land identified in the local plan as:
Areas identified as Growth
areas would automatically be granted outline planning permission for the
principle of development. Renewal areas would have a general presumption in
favour of development. Therefore, for development would be granted in one of
three ways:
- For
pre-specified forms of development such as the redevelopment of certain
building types, permission will be achieved via a new permission route
which gives an automatic consent if the scheme meets design and other
prior approval requirements.
- For other
types of development, a faster planning application process where a
planning application for the development would be determined in the
context of the Local Plan description, or.
- A Local or
Neighbourhood Development Order.
- Protected areas
- development proposals would come forward through planning applications
being made to the local authority (except where they are subject to
permitted development rights or development orders), and judged against
policies set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.
- For all
types of planning applications, the time limits of eight or 13 weeks for
determining an application from validation to decision should be a firm
deadline – not an aspiration. There will be an automatic refund of the
planning fee for the application if they fail to determine it within the
time limit. This may well lead to more refusals if information is not
submitted on time by applicants
- Local
planning authorities will be subject to a new performance framework which
ensures continuous improvement across all planning functions from Local
Plans to decision-making and enforcement – this will allow the government
to intervene if problems emerge with individual authorities.
- Support for
climate change and biodiversity net gain.
- Consulting
on changes to the NPPF in the Autumn.
The paper expresses that following the consultation there will be a transition period. It acknowledges that there will be skills gaps and will add costs. It states that the cost of operating the new planning system should be principally funded by the beneficiaries of planning gain – landowners and developers – rather than the national or local taxpayer. If a new approach to development contributions is implemented, a small proportion of the income should be earmarked to local planning authorities to cover their overall planning costs, including the preparation and review of Local Plans and design codes and enforcement activities.
Notes
https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/council/concerns-over-how-planning-changes-will-affect-northumberland-2944538
