Turbocharging housebuilding and other planning takeaways from the Kings Speech
Labour’s ambition to get the planning system working quicker, cheaper and more effectively (turbocharging to use the Government's language) so that we can deliver the required housing and energy infrastructure is a commendable one, but there’s no magic wand to fix it, as consecutive governments have discovered. As others have commented very little details yet been published by the Government. For that detail we will to wait for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
If the new government wants to make a real difference to building infrastructure in the short and medium terms, while also ensuring its flagship policy to establish Great British Energy is able to generate sufficient green power, there are two small changes to planning policy that can reap significant rewards – although they won’t be without their challenges.
Firstly, it must clarify what the planning system will prioritise when giving weight to various considerations in planning applications to enable consistent decision-making across planning authorities.
With so many environmental, legal and heritage issues to balance against potential benefits of development, a clear position at national level is required so that the strategic importance of new housing and infrastructure is a decisive factor.
This is especially true in relation to large linear infrastructure, such as electricity transmission cables that span numerous planning authority areas. These pose issues like visual impact, so there must be a clear weighting in favour of key renewable infrastructure to clear planning hurdles.
Secondly, the government must make it easier and cheaper for councils to update their local plans, which set out a pipeline for future development. This is currently a very burdensome and expensive task that involves many layers of bureaucracy and inspection, so loosening some of the most arduous tests they must pass would give the private sector a clear sense of direction when proposing new development.
At the same time, the government must think more strategically about how it can update the National Planning Policy Framework to establish a definition for low-quality parts of the green belt – the so-called grey belt – to unlock further land for development.
It should also seriously consider where exactly we want to build, with extensions to existing cities that already have much of the required public infrastructure arguably the best candidates for new development as this will also help to boost investment and raise economic output.
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Browne Jacobson