The PM is all set to ‘build, build, build’

Boris Johnson wants the country to “build, build, build” its way out of recession, and the mechanism for doing so was set out yesterday in the Government’s White Paper, Planning for the Future. Its contents represent the biggest overhaul of the system since the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. Many governments have tinkered with the regime, blaming it for holding up development and suppressing housing needs. Several contemplated scrapping the old system and starting again.

The White Paper is a hybrid, using the existing network of Local Plans while superimposing upon them a zonal approach. All councils in England will be required to submit new Local Plans within 30 months, or 42 months if they have adopted one within three years of the legislation being enacted, or be penalised if they don’t. At the moment it takes seven years to devise a plan, so the new system will speed matters up considerably. The plans will designate three areas: growth, where permission to develop in principle is granted and automatic approvals would be available for preestablished development types; renewal, with a general presumption in favour of development; and protected, where development might be allowed but within strict conditions.

Once the initial designation is completed, local politicians will have little say over development in growth zones. But the Government says there will be democratic involvement of local people in deciding the boundaries of different areas. This is likely to lead to clashes with Tory-run shire councils and Conservative backbenchers as the legislation makes its way through Parliament.

Radical planning reforms are never easy to deliver. Critics have been quick to denounce the White Paper as a charter for unbridled building but it needs to be given a fair wind. The emphasis on good quality design and the opportunities for smaller firms to break the monopoly of the big house builders are welcome. So are the changes to the community investment levy whose scope is to be expanded to allow local planning authorities to drive up the provision of affordable homes.

The ambition behind the White Paper cannot be gainsaid. Simplicity, speed and flexibility are essential if the Prime Minister’s aspirations are to be fulfilled. But the existing system’s resistance to any fundamental change is testament to the power of local objections to unravel the best intentions.