The development industry is watching with interest as a new national planning policy regime is starting to take shape.
Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles sent a letter to all Local Planning Authorities at the end of May outlining his intention to ‘rapidly abolish regional strategies and return decision making powers on housing and planning to local councils’.
This was quickly followed by the publication in early June of a revised version of Planning Policy Statement 3 (Housing), in which garden land was re-classified from Brownfield to Greenfield, and housing density targets were abolished.
The new measures are intended to return decision making to local councils and stop unrestrained ‘garden grabbing’.
It is not yet completely clear how the changes will impact upon decision making at the local level. Although the secretary of state has announced his intention to abolish regional strategies (and the policies and housing targets that go with them), and has requested that his letter is treated as a ‘material consideration’, the formal abolition of regional strategies has yet to occur.
Certain Council’s in the local area are, at the time of writing, continuing to view development proposals on garden land within settlement boundaries favourably, given the need to meet (surviving) housing targets. Others may choose to take a harder line.
Here at PDP we will continue to monitor the situation carefully as the coalition government’s new approach continues to emerge and bed down, and will update clients of any significant developments via the monthly newsletter.