Let’s ditch the red tape

The Conservative Party is unashamedly pro-development — we need to see more homes built in order to address the government’s appalling legacy of unmet housing demand. A key driver of the current housing crisis is that the planning system simply isn’t delivering for local communities or for developers alike. Industry figures tell me it is slow, bureaucratic and expensive.

There is one vital fact to keep in mind in this debate. The number of houses built in 2009 is the lowest since 1946 — and is forecast to fall even further, to levels not seen since 1923, yet opposition to development is on the rise. If Labour’s record shows nothing else, it is that targets don’t work — we need radical solutions to tackle the chronic lack of housing.

That’s why we are proposing to abolish the regime of top-down targets which is a fundamental cause of ‘nimbyism’, not an answer to it. Instead, we will put trust in people and give communities the power to come up with new ‘bottom up’ local plans that will define how an area’s future development will be shaped.

However, that does not equate to the planning free-for-all that some have suggested. All new local plans will be formed within the context of a national planning framework, which would offer key guidance to local authorities and each plan will ultimately be signed off by the secretary of state.

Nor does it mean that we are ‘devolving planning decisions below the level of the democratically elected authority’ as Lord Best suggested in last week’s Inside Housing. Our planning green paper makes clear that we want collaborative democracy to flourish where local people and their elected representatives work together to come up with a new local plan. But the final decision on the contents of a local plan, and subsequent planning decisions made on the basis of that local plan will, of course, lie with elected representatives.

The only exception to this is our entirely separate policy on local housing trusts, new community-led bodies which would empower people in villages and towns to develop the homes that local communities need by allowing them to grant themselves planning permission, provided there was no more than 10 per cent opposition in a community referendum.

Our policies to abolish predetermination rules and encourage preapplication discussion will allow developers to engage with local representatives and inform local opinion at an early stage.

Development is vital to a successful economy but it cannot be at the expense of marginalising communities. I firmly believe that our plans will lead to a much greater level of sustainable development which would ultimately benefit everybody.

Bob Neill MP is Conservative shadow minister for Communities and Local Government