Developers ‘could be allowed to sidestep councils’

COUNCIL LEADERS have hit out at new planning rules they say will allow developers to use the system to sidestep local authorities if not enough houses are built.

Housebuilders would be able to ignore local plans for mapping areas for homes if fewer than 75 per cent of those required by Whitehall targets for 2020 are constructed, says the Local Government Association (LGA).

It has previously suggested more than half of the Government’s 300,000 new houses-peryear target – just under 165,000 homes in 42 per cent of council areas – could bypass the plans agreed by local councils using the new Housing Delivery Test.

It is part of the new national policy planning framework (NPPF) announced by Communities Secretary James Brokenshire yesterday, replacing legislation introduced in 2012.

Mr Brokenshire said the rules would create a planning system “fit for the future” which married requirements for building numbers, build quality and environmental requirements.

But Lord Porter, chairman of the LGA, said the plan failed to give councils the powers they needed “to ensure homes with planning permission are built out quickly, with the necessary infrastructure, in their local communities”.

He said: “It is hugely disappointing that the Government has not listened to our concerns about nationally set housing targets, and will introduce a delivery test that punishes communities for homes not built by private developers. Councils work hard with communities to get support for good-quality housing development locally, and there is a risk these reforms will lead to locally agreed plans being bypassed by national targets.”

In a written ministerial statement Mr Brokenshire told the Commons that the NPPF “provides greater certainty for local authorities in the decision-making and planning appeals processes”.