Government plans to overhaul local council’s planning committees, as part of its drive to “get Britain building again”, are threatening to destroy a “vital part” of local democracy, the MP for Bath has warned.
As part of the Prime Minister’s plans to “put builders not blockers first”, the government published its new national planning policy framework, for 370,000 homes to be built across the country every year.
Meanwhile, it is also planning to reform council planning committees, the local bodies made up of elected councillors which decide major planning applications.
Bath’s Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse said: “There is no denying that appalling mismanagement by the Conservatives has left us with an acute housing shortage.
“We urgently need to build more houses and fast. But it is not local planning authorities that are causing delays to house building – it is land supply and land banking.
“That’s why I’m concerned by the government’s decision to overhaul planning committees as they play an important role in supporting local democracy, ensuring that local voices are represented in decision-making.”
In Bath and North East Somerset, most decisions about whether to grant planning permission are taken by council officers under delegated powers, but developments that are large or controversial are usually referred to the planning committee by councillors.
Planning committees are already required to decide whether to grant planning permission based on local planning policies, and can see their decisions overturned by the planning inspectorate when they fail to.
But under the government’s new plans, far more applications would be decided under delegated powers by planning officers, with the rules set by the government in London.
This could mean that all developments which line up with the council’s local plan of where housing should go could be decided by officers, not local councillors.
The chair of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s planning committee, councillor Ian Halsall (Oldfield Park, Liberal Democrat) said: “Council planning committees are a vital part of local democracy.
“They ensure that councillors and residents can bring their in-depth local knowledge to the fore when new developments are being considered.
“It’s also really important for the public to see important decisions that impact them, being taken and justified in public rather than behind closed doors.”
Ms Hobhouse added: “If the government are seriously committed to speeding up house building, they should concentrate on pushing developers to deliver on their planning permissions and addressing land banking, rather than threatening to destroy this vital part of local democracy.”
She clashed with housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook over the plans in the House of Commons on Monday 9th December.
She told him: “It is not local planning authorities that stop house building, but land supplies and land banking, as we have already heard this afternoon. In Bath and North East Somerset alone, something like 2,000 homes have received planning permission but have not been built yet.”
Mr Pennycook said: “We have to have more permissions going into the system and more timely planning decisions made in accordance with material planning considerations and in a consistent way, not relitigating or revisiting decisions that have been made in outline. However, we also absolutely have to take action on land supply and build-out.”
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has called the planning system “clogged up”.
She said: “Streamlining the approvals process by modernising local planning committees means tackling the chronic uncertainty and damaging delays that act as a drag anchor on building the homes people desperately need.”
It comes as the government has more than doubled the council’s housing target from 717 homes a year over the next 20 years to 1,471, and made meeting the figure mandatory.
In October, council leader Kevin Guy (Bathavon North, Liberal Democrat) called it a “crude target”.
At the same council meeting, Matt McCabe (Bathavon South, Liberal Democrat) warned that Bath could not take more than 5,000 homes without harming its World Heritage Site status, meaning space for 11,000 would need to be found in North East Somerset, more homes than there are currently in Midsomer Norton.
He said: “That’s not just a new town. That would be the biggest town in North East Somerset.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
