THE Campaign for the Protection of Rural England have condemned planned government reforms to the planning process.
The proposals from Housing secretary Robert Jenrick and designed to ‘simplify’ the planning process, would likely further remove local authority scrutiny of planning decisions and increase the number of new builds classed as ‘permitted development’.
However Tom Fyans, director of campaigns and policy at CPRE said: ‘The government’s intended reforms sound like a gross oversimplification of the planning system.
“First and foremost, our planning process must respond to the needs of communities, both in terms of providing much-needed affordable homes and other vital infrastructure, and green spaces for our health and wellbeing.
“The planning process as it stands may not be perfect but instead of deregulating planning, the government must invest in planning. “Quality development needs a quality planning system with community participation at its heart.”
Proposals could see greater use of development corporations and US-style development zones which would be largely outside local authority influence provided they met an agreed list of criteria set by government.
