Concerns over how planning changes will affect Northumberland

Labour in Northumberland has said the Government’s new planning reforms would ‘drive a bulldozer through local councils’ and people’s rights’.
Northumberland  County Council's HQ at County Hall in MorpethNorthumberland  County Council's HQ at County Hall in Morpeth
Northumberland County Council's HQ at County Hall in Morpeth

Consultation on the Planning for the Future White Paper is now taking place, following the Housing Secretary announcing ‘an overhaul of the country’s outdated planning system that will deliver the high-quality, sustainable homes communities need’.

Robert Jenrick said: “Our complex planning system has been a barrier to building the homes people need; it takes seven years to agree local housing plans and five years just to get a spade in the ground.

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“These once-in-a-generation reforms will lay the foundations for a brighter future, providing more homes for young people and creating better quality neighbourhoods and homes across the country.”

But Labour has pointed out that councils across the country already approve nine out of every 10 planning applications, and that developers are sitting on land where thousands and thousands of homes have already been given the green light.

Among the proposals is a new zoning system of land as either growth, renewal or protected, the latter covering the likes of green belt, AONBs and National Parks. In growth areas, sites will essentially already benefit from outline permission, while renewal zones ‘will enable much quicker development’.

In terms of developer contributions, section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy will be replaced with a new Infrastructure Levy – a fixed proportion of the value of the development, above a set threshold, ‘helping to deliver more affordable housing’, according to the Government.

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Mr Jenrick said: “We will cut red tape, but not standards, placing a higher regard on quality, design and the environment than ever before. Planning decisions will be simple and transparent, with local democracy at the heart of the process.”

However, 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.

“Areas like Northumberland are facing a shortage of affordable homes, which is particularly acute in rural areas of the county where house prices are often beyond local residents’ financial means, forcing them to move away.

“Over half the country’s affordable homes are provided by section 106 agreements where the council can demand developers build a proportion of their new homes as affordable homes.

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“This ability will be lost in these changes and there appears little confidence in the replacement for s106 delivering new affordable housing.”

Local Plans would be overhauled so that they ‘set clear rules rather than general policies for development’ – they would be visual and map-based, significantly shorter in length, ‘limited to no more than setting out site or area-specific parameters and opportunities’, and would have to be developed in no more than 30 months.

Given Northumberland’s Local Plan is still at the examination phase with further hearings to come later this year and then more consultation, it is unclear whether this process will be disrupted by the new proposals.

Analysis by Lichfields shows that while the current ‘standard method’ sets out the number of new homes needed annually in Northumberland is 651, under new proposals, this would be almost doubled to 1,172.

The Northumberland Local Plan, as yet unadopted, proposes 17,700 new homes over the 20-year plan period from 2016 to 2036, or 885 a year, although average delivery in the last three years has actually been 1,570.

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