Labour launches contemporary warfare on ‘Nimbys’ by giving native campaigners only one probability to object to new developments
Labour is launching a fresh war on ‘Nimbys’ by giving local campaigners just one chance to object to new developments.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed is today expected to outline changes to stop people ‘weaponising’ the planning system.
The Government is due to publish an update to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which sets out how planning rules should be applied in England.
The Times reported it will limit objections to new developments to a single attempt.
Mr Reed is said to have raised the case of the Shell Centre, a development on London‘s South Bank, where one objector held up the scheme for three years by bringing a stream of challenges to court.
‘We’ll change the rules so that people can still object, but they can’t go back again and again if they don’t get the outcome that they wanted,’ he said.
‘You can basically weaponise the law to stop homes being built, but by doing that you’re forcing more people to sleep rough.’
The updated NPPF is also expected to include measures to allow more developments to be approved automatically.
Labour is launching a fresh war on ‘Nimbys’ by giving local campaigners just one chance to object to new developments
Housing Secretary Steve Reed is today expected to outline changes to stop people ‘weaponising’ the planning system
Labour is vowing to build 1.5million new homes across England within five years, but there are growing doubts over ministers’ ability to fulfil their pledge.
In previous changes introduced by the Government following last year’s general election, ministers said lower quality green belt land will be designated ‘grey belt’ and released for construction.
A source at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said: ‘The Housing Secretary is determined to throw out every outdated rule and break through the barriers to fix Britain’s housing catastrophe.’
MHCLG this week denied suggestions it had quietly ripped up decade-old green belt protections in Labour’s scramble to boost housebuilding rates.
It came after letter from Matthew Pennycook, the housing and planning minister, revealed Labour had revoked 10-year-old guidance on the role of local authorities.
Writing to Paul Morrison, the chief executive of the Planning Inspectorate, in October, Mr Pennycook confirmed he was junking a previous protocol.
As part of efforts to overhaul the ‘cumbersome’ planning system, the minister said he was boosting the role of planning inspectors in reviewing the use of green belt land.
He reversed a 2014 instruction by Nick Boles, then a minister in the coalition government, that made clear local authorities ‘are in charge of planning for their own areas’.
