We have now all seen and reflected on the Labour Government’s plans to build more across the UK. We have seen compulsory housebuilding targets for local councils reinstated, in an effort to build 1.5 million new homes in the next five years. We have also been promised reform in the planning system to make it easier to build these homes, including on the ‘grey belt’, as we’ve come to know it.

The one addition to the NPPF I am most interested in, as a transport and urban design specialist of over 19 years, is the promotion of a vision led approach to promoting sustainable transport for new developments. This is underlined elsewhere in the discussion, saying that well designed development means it has to be in the right place. These pledges could lead to 1.5 million new homes, but without consideration of sustainable transport, this development could well create more problems and come into conflict with Labour’s other goals.

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