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Sajid Javid The Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, Sajid Javid, launched proposals for productivity on Friday 11th July, in a Command Paper called “Fixing the Foundations”. The parts which got press coverage were the reforms to planning. In outline, the major changes are to adopt a zoning system for brownfield […] A somewhat surprising alliance between the Daily Telegraph and Labour’s shadow secretary for Communities and Local Government – Hilary Benn – has emerged this morning, with an article by Hilary Benn headlined “The Coalition have got it wrong over planning”. So let us recall what the Coalition (or rather the Conservative policies adopted by […] It’s very interesting how George Osborne and his advisers seem to get planning, as the modern system was introduced in 1947. There was a presumption in favour of development, planning was to rebuild the country and the idea was to enable development to happen. See the Uthwatt report for example. So the Chancellor of the […] Has there been a hitch? The word on the street last week was that the NPPF would be issued on Budget day, Wednesday 21st. There were accompanying suggestions that the final draft was subject to comment from Treasury and BIS who were not happy. So on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday George Osborne announced that […] I see that CPRE have released another report today, “Protecting the Wider Countryside” claiming that only 49% of the countryside will be protected if the NPPF is adopted in its present form. That is the area which is protected by a national designation. The rest is undesignated. So CPRE argue that it should be subject […] The Commons Committee report on the draft NPPF is out today. The interest is mainly going to be on what is said about the presumption in favour of sustainable development. Let’s start at the Committee website. It opens saying that the default answer of ‘yes’ to development should be removed (and predictably, that is the […] “Framework” – a frame or skeleton (OED).
The closing date for responses is Monday 17th. In a spirit of openness, transparency and adventure, I have posted my response which you can read in this link. I offer the following comments (in italic) on the list issued today. The National Trust’s ten asks of the NPPF are: 1. Confirmation that the planning system should not be used as a blunt tool to ‘proactively drive development’. Planning is a sophisticated tool, and it is able to drive economic development proactively. That was […] |
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