Ministers’ meddling hampers housebuilding

sir – When Robert Jenrick, the housing minister, writes about “ensuring that local people are at the heart of decision making” (Comment, March 13), who and what does he mean?

Throughout my time as a local councillor from 2011 to 2019, there was a central lack of clarity on who “local people” actually were. Are they the Local Planning Authority (LPA), or the developer (on the grounds that he or she has a customer), or the planning inspector, or even local parish councils?

My LPA has an approved local plan. Nevertheless, refusals which seemed to the LPA to be good were overturned on appeal. Permitted development rights on commercial property, exercised in defiance of the local plan, have resulted in flats which are unmortageable because of their poor quality and ambience.

In the future, will “local people” be able to veto bad plans, and if so, how? There is an argument for building higher, but what if the amenity of local people is adversely affected?

The only coherent answer to the question is an LPA with an approved local plan, including targets for affordable housing. The housing ministry should give such an LPA consistent backing and resist the impulse to interfere.

Anthony Pick

Newbury, Berkshire

sir – The mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street (Business Comment, March 7), says that developers should first build on brownfield land, then on green belt.

This is true, but premature. The next option is not green belt, but white land. There is plenty of white land, for example around London. In planning terms, the defining feature of white land is simple. It not subject to protection policies intended to maintain the current land use. It is not green belt, or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or flood plain – nor, for that matter, is it brownfield.

Instead of looking at possible green belt sites, councils must first start looking at white land. Perhaps land around Birmingham, Telford New Town 2 and Telford New Town 3 ought to be added to the mayor’s list of options.

Ian Campbell

Richmond upon Thames, Surrey