Agenda item

Decision:

Cabinet received a report which set out an intended response from the Council to the Government’s recent consultation paper entitled ‘Planning for the Future’. Cabinet asked that the following comments be taken into account in the draft response:-

 

·         The quality of architecture was a key requirement.

·         Consideration needed to be given to reforming the Planning Inspectorate to avoid delays.

·         Infrastructure funding was not front-loaded and infrastructure should be provided before expansion.

·         Further consideration should be given to health needs with future developments.

·         Simplification of local plans were a concern and it was important that local communities were not disenfranchised.

·         Concern was raised about architects being used as experts and their view of a good design may not be shared by others.

·         Reference was made to thresholds so that the 10 threshold was reduced not increased to 40-50 for affordable housing. This would be an issue for rural areas.

·         There was a problem with developers land banking – if planning permission was granted then developers should be given a time frame to build houses. If no building was carried out further applications could be made on green belt land.

·         Concerns were raised about housing targets which would be non-negotiable. The Council could be given a high target which they could not meet because of issues outside of its control e.g. developers not building houses.

 

RESOLVED

 

Cabinet AGREED the draft response to the Government consultation as set out in Appendix A of the report, with delegated responsibility for submission of the final response, incorporating the further changes above made at the Cabinet meeting, to the Corporate Director Planning Growth and Sustainability in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement.

Minutes:

Cabinet received a report which set out an intended response from the Council to the Government’s recent consultation paper entitled ‘Planning for the Future’. The Leader reported that this was the biggest change to planning since 1947 and he encouraged Members, Parish and Town Councils and residents to look at the proposed changes as this would impact on all local areas and would have a profound impact on Buckinghamshire and its natural attributes.

 

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement referred also to the importance of this public consultation. He commented that the current system was not perfect however with regard to the Government proposals there was a mixture of helpful ideas (digitalisation of planning and making the local plan process slicker) but also areas of concern. He summarised the main points as follows:-

 

·         Reduces local democratic accountability

·         Reduce the engagement of local plans

·         Inflated housing targets

·         Affordable housing proposals must be properly funded

·         Developers should fund the full cost of development

·         Greater penalties for planning enforcement

 

The Cabinet Member reported that the reason that it was being discussed at an early point at Cabinet was to allow other organisations to understand the Council’s approach so that they could feed their comments back either individually or through the Council. The White Paper was split into 3 areas with 24 specific proposals; planning and development, beauty and sustainability and infrastructure.

 

Cabinet asked that the following comments be taken into account in the draft response:-

 

·         The quality of architecture was a key requirement.

·         Consideration needed to be given to reforming the Planning Inspectorate to avoid delays.

·         Infrastructure funding was not front-loaded and infrastructure should be provided before expansion.

·         Further consideration should be given to health needs with future developments.

·         Simplification of local plans were a concern and it was important that local communities were not disenfranchised.

·         Reference was made to thresholds so that the 10 threshold was reduced not increased to 40-50 for affordable housing. This would be an issue for rural areas.

·         There was a problem with developers land banking and controlling delivery  – if planning permission was granted then developers should be given a time frame to build houses.

·         Concerns were raised about housing targets which would be non-negotiable. The target would be calculated by an algorithm. The Council could be given a high target which they could not meet because of issues outside of its control e.g. the area of outstanding natural beauty and developers not building houses. The Cabinet Member reported that he had responded robustly to Government in the past two weeks on housing targets which had been welcomed by stakeholders.

 

Members noted that the White Paper would have a significant impact on the Buckinghamshire Local Plan but if the Government firmed up its proposals in the next six to twelve months then the Council would be in a good position to work with the new system. It was important that communities had enough time to put their views forward on their new local plans but the Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement was concerned that the timeframe suggested in the White Paper was not robust enough for this at the moment.

 

The deadline for the response to Government was 29 October 2020.

 

RESOLVED

 

Cabinet AGREED the draft response to the Government consultation as set out in Appendix A of the report, with delegated responsibility for submission of the final response, incorporating the further changes above made at the Cabinet meeting, to the Corporate Director Planning Growth and Sustainability in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement.

Supporting documents: