MY BROTHER-IN-LAW is a developer (of sorts) and he asked me what localism and neighbourhood planning is all about.
I knew that localism runs the risk of being consigned to his tray that includes the Millennium Bug, global warming, waste recycling and the Apollo Moon Landings as concepts that cost money but have no apparent value except for true believers (and consultants).
Localism is the cornerstone of the Government’s proposal to reform the planning system and empower local communities.
Consultation and local engagement at an early stage should produce the kind of development neighbourhoods want.
It is hoped it will lead to an end to the Government introducing top-down targets. Planning officers will not be able to refuse to meet applicants to discuss applications, although nothing about having to make an appointment 14 days in advance and only on a Thursday between 3 and 4pm.
Parish/town councils (or, if they don’t exist, local community groups) will have the power to apply for neighbourhood development plans setting out development policy and neighbourhood development orders granting planning permission.
Anyone can set up a local community group, handy for those propping up the bar in the Vat and Fiddle who like to put the world to rights over a pint.
Unsurprisingly, while the Localism Bill has been widely welcomed, neighbourhood planning has attracted the most criticism, with a risk of Nimbyism and given the abandonment of regional strategy and a newly-proposed national planning policy framework.
One peer of the realm recently commented that they would: “Recruit like-minded neighbours and make sure that we had no additional housing in the neighbourhood and would shift the issue onto other villages that were not so quick off the starting blocks”.
And therein lies the danger, that the system becomes one of “can’t do” rather than “can do”.
Or it may follow the “banana” policy – build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything.
As my bother-in-law said when I’d explained: “Who’s going to want the waste incinerator?”
The Localism Bill is going through the House of Lords and is expected to become law in November.
