Select committee says changes needed on planning document

The government has to make a series of improvements concerning sustainable development in its draft National Planning Policy Framework, a key select committee has said.

In a report out today, the communities and local government select committee said that the default answer of ‘yes’ to development should be stripped out from the framework.

And MPs add that the phrase “significantly and demonstrably” should be removed from the framework’s wording which says planning applications should be approved unless the adverse effects “significantly and demonstrably” outweigh the benefits.

Committee chairman Clive Betts said: “The way the framework is drafted currently gives the impression that greater emphasis should be given in planning decisions to economic growth. This undermines the equally important environmental and social elements of the planning system.”

Betts added that the NPPF defines the phrase ‘sustainable development’ “inadequately and often conflates it with ‘sustainable economic growth’.”

And the report added that the NPPF should be made clearer in parts. “As currently worded the framework would introduce several ambiguities that are more likely to slow down the planning process,” Betts said. “Gaps or contradictions in the document are likely to fuel a system of ‘planning decision by appeal’ instead of the local decision making that ministers advocate.”

The Town and Country Planning Association said it welcomed the committee’s findings. “Sustainable development must be at the heart of the planning system and is pivotal to delivering the kind of inclusive, attractive and resiliebnt communities we want to see,” said chief executive Kate Henderson.

The government’s draft framework was unveiled in July and is designed to make the planning system less complex by cutting the amount of regulations from more than 1,000 pages to just 52.

But critics, including the National Trust and Richard Rogers who has launched a high-profile attack on the document, claim it will allow parts of the country to be turned into an urban sprawl reminiscent of Los Angeles.