Responding to the government’s new National Planning Policy Framework which has set a goal of getting 1.5 million new homes built during this parliament, but will allow local authority planning officers the power to rubber stamp development proposals without permission from council committees, the leader Green group on Exeter City Council, Councillor Diana Moore, said:
“With its obsessive focus on housing numbers, Labour’s new planning framework fails to take the holistic approach to housing that is needed. We have already seen the results of this numbers game in Exeter from previous house building targets – the wrong homes in the wrong places that are way too expensive for most people. Exeter has seen a string of developments that have ripped out green spaces on the edges of the city and delivered high-priced, car-dependent homes with little or no infrastructure in the way of doctor’s surgeries, schools, shops or public transport.
“Furthermore, painting the local planning process as the ‘block’ on achieving housing targets is misguided and an insult to local democracy.
“Misguided because District planning authorities already approve around nine in 10 planning applications they receive and there are currently over a million homes with planning consent in the UK waiting to be built. In Exeter there are 5289 homes that have planning permission but developers are sitting on the land and not getting on with it.
“And an insult to local democracy because local people and those elected to represent them should have the right to have a say over major changes to their local community. Instead, the government seems happy to bulldoze its way through the local planning system and pander to the interests of private developers whose main interest is lining their pockets.
“Most importantly, homes must be built to meet the needs of local communities, rather than what offers developers the greatest profit. That means a high proportion of new homes must be truly affordable council and social housing built to the highest environmental standards so energy bills are kept low. Exeter Council’s own passivhaus council houses have shown the way. We need far more of these types of homes and less executive homes which are out of reach for so many people.
“We know that many Labour District Councils are distinctly unhappy at the changes proposed by the reforms of the National Planning Policy Framework. Labour-led Exeter City Council must bend the ear of government and tell them firmly that the city needs the right homes in the right place at the right price. Any planning policy that fails those tests is not fit for purpose.”