Whatever’s going on in the political world, the business of government continues. Back in February I blogged on the Housing White Paper, ‘Fixing our broken housing market’. We broadly welcomed the White Paper, but felt that it was a missed opportunity to expand on how the planning system in England can do more to build great communities where people can access wildlife-rich green spaces on the doorstep of their new homes: just as we are doing working with Barratt Developments and Aylesbury Vale District Council.
Now we have just submitted our detailed response at the close of the consultation period. Have our views changed at all on closer inspection?
There are still many things that we welcome, including more encouragement for strategic spatial planning, and measures to boost the capacity of local planning authorities.
We still feel, though, that it’s a missed opportunity. Yes, it’s a Housing White Paper, and we need as a country to deliver more homes, but people don’t just need a roof over their heads – they need high quality places to live in which are healthy for people and wildlife.
Delving into the detail of the White Paper has raised concerns about how the so-called ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ works. Some seemingly minor changes could have potentially major significance for sites of high environmental value if they are not explicitly listed in this policy. Sites of Special Scientific Interest and European designations are included, which is good news, but the policy could diminish the significance of other important environmental assets.
Here are our other key recommendations:
Environmental capacity studies and strategies to protect and enhance the natural environment must be developed alongside strategies to maximise the use of land.
The definition of Sustainable Development should be updated to refer to the Sustainable Development Goals. We put forward detailed wording changes to clarify what Sustainable Development means in practice for the planning system in England.
Brownfield land of high environmental value will be under even greater pressure for development. It is essential that the Government provides a definition for suitable brownfield sites and for brownfield land of high environmental value.
Protected areas (including SSSIs, Special Protection Areas, Special Areas of Conservation and Ramsar sites) must be excluded from public land disposal and planning freedom schemes.
Climate Change: The Government should re-emphasise the importance of mitigation and adaptation to climate change as a priority outcome in plan-making and decision-taking.
It will be critical to have clarity and transparency in the new plan-making framework. Plans must be supported by relevant, up-to-date ecological evidence. Spatial Development Frameworks and other plans should support a renewed focus on strategic spatial planning for biodiversity and climate change. Authorities must continue to fully assess the reasonable alternatives of different growth strategies and alternative policy options.
European Protected Species: we broadly support the strategic approach to licensing of great crested newts. There are a number of concerns which must be addressed prior to any wider roll-out of the Woking pilot.
We support proposals to boost local authority capacity. A proportion of the additional revenue must be used to boost wider capacity within local planning authorities, including for technical specialists such as ecologists.
Green Infrastructure should be considered as an infrastructure priority. Housing and infrastructure funding should include funding for delivery of green infrastructure, green spaces and ecological networks and provide for their long term monitoring, management and maintenance.
Whatever the result of the election on 8 June, the new housing minister will be faced with the same challenge of building not only enough homes, but the right homes in the right places. Our recommendations will help them to do this in a way that’s good for people and nature.
Finally, over the coming months we intend to develop a vision and set of principles for what nature-friendly housing looks like, whatever part of the UK you live in, and we hope to use this to inform future housing and planning policy. We’d welcome your views on what we should include.