Of all the announcements which the new Government has come out with since the General Election, very few will have as much of a direct or long-lasting impact on residents in Reigate, Redhill, Banstead and our villages as the proposed reforms to the planning system.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is essentially the document that lays down the rules and regulations dictating how planning applications in England are to be judged. The NPPF instructs local planning authorities on everything from how many houses they should aspire to build to how much protection Green Belt land should get when applications are considered. It is very much one of the most important documents that many people have never heard of!
When the Conservatives left office, the NPPF was written in such a way that good quality new homes could be built in the right places – but not at the expense of Green Belt land. One of the firsts acts of the new Labour Government has been for Angela Rayner to announce that the NPPF is to be radically rewritten, sadly, not in a way which will benefit us here in Reigate & Banstead.
The most striking of Rayner’s proposed changes is the return of mandatory housing targets. This means that a formula set in Whitehall, rather than your democratically elected local councillors, will now decide how many homes must be built. Planning authorities will lose their discretion over housing numbers and in an area like ours, this can only serve to force developments onto Green Belt land.
Indeed, the Government has already announced that housing targets for Reigate & Banstead will increase significantly. We will go from having an advisory target of 644 houses per year to a mandatory target of 1264. This is a 96% increase. It bears repeating that such an enormous demand could only be satisfied by sacrificing significant areas of Green Belt land.
I was disappointed as well to read that the new NPPF will strip out the requirement that new homes be ‘beautiful’. This may seem like a superfluous detail but in fact this provision allowed local planning authorities to consider the character and aesthetic of a proposal – and the area it is to be built in – before making a decision. Our towns and villages have their own character and sense of place. It would be tragic to see these eroded away by a wave of ill conceived new developments, after all, when a village’s character is lost, it can never be reclaimed.
It goes without saying that I will be fighting hard in Parliament, along with my Conservative colleagues, to oppose these destructive proposals. However, my objections will carry far more weight if they are backed up with yours. The Government is currently running a consultation on their proposed changes and you have the opportunity to register your objections. The more of us do this, the better our chances of securing modifications to the initial proposals. You can access the consultation, and see how to respond, by clicking HERE.
Please note that the consultation closes on the 24th of September so don’t delay responding by too long!
I very much value your support in this and will report back regularly on my efforts to ensure our Green Belt is preserved for future generations. We are privileged to live where we do, in the surroundings we do, and have a duty to ensure that the next generation can enjoy that same privilege.
