Conservative MP for Lewes Maria Caulfield has shared the proposed changes to National Planning Policy which will protect local green spaces.
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, had announced in December that the Conservative Government would publish a National Planning Policy consultation before Christmas. This consultation has now been published on gov.uk.
The consultation sets out specific changes that the Conservative Government propose to immediately make to the National Planning Policy Framework to swiftly deliver the Government’s commitments to building enough of the right homes in the right places with the right infrastructure, ensuring the environment is protected and giving local people a greater say on where and where not to place new development.
The consultation includes changes to:
1. make clear how housing figures should be derived and applied so that communities can respond to local circumstances;
2. address issues in the operation of the housing delivery and land supply tests;
3. tackle problems of slow build out;
4. encourage local planning authorities to support the role of community-led groups in delivering affordable housing on exception sites;
5. set clearer expectations around planning for older peoples’ housing;
6. promote more beautiful homes, including through gentle density;
7. make sure that food security considerations are factored into planning decisions that affect farm land;
8. and enable new methods for demonstrating local support for onshore wind development.
The document also calls for views on a wider range of proposals, particularly focused on making sure the planning system capitalises on opportunities to support the natural environment, respond to climate change and deliver on levelling up of economic opportunity, and signals areas that we expect to consider in the context of a wider review of the Framework to follow Royal Assent of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
Maria Caulfield MP said “I am very pleased to share the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy.
"I have been working with residents from Wivelsfield to Polegate to protect our green spaces from development. The lack of a Local Plan is currently the number one reason planning inspectors overturn refusals and so getting these in place and keeping them in date will really make a difference locally. "
