Labour Government makes sweeping changes to Greenbelt rules
The Labour government is making sweeping changes to the planning process which will reduce the power of local people to influence planning decisions in our borough as well as nationally. Despite the new Prime Minister’s statements about devolution of decision-making, the changes mean that decisions on planning applications must be made based on central government requirements rather than what is right for Guildford. It will have an impact on communities right across the Borough.
One of those changes is the introduction of the words “grey belt” into the planning system. Guildford Borough Council has carried out a green belt assessment which is a requirement of putting together a new local plan. The report on that assessment has now been published on the council’s website and shows the consequences of the new grey belt designation.
These national planning changes were opposed in parliament by our Lib Dem MP for Guildford, Zöe Franklin, because they abolish protections to prevent villages merging with each other and will encourage developers to prioritise car-dependent greenfield developments in rural areas and access to jobs.
Other national planning changes include the removal of housing targets based on local need and the imposition of new national targets that have doubled the amount of housing required in our area, from under 600 new homes a year to almost 1200, with loosened restrictions on development for any area that isn't meeting the new targets.
There are now also new government proposals which would take away the power of local planning committees to decide most planning applications. All of this is a huge amount of centralisation of the planning system by Labour, imposing a one-size fits all approach, that completely ignores local circumstances, such as the fact that a third of Guildford borough is made up of protected landscapes like the Surrey Hills, where there shouldn't be any appropriate sites for development.
Just because land is greybelt doesn't mean it will be built on. Greybelt status only means the land is potentially acceptable for development, but there are other planning considerations that might block development.
But the change in the status of so much of the greenbelt does mean that there will undoubtedly be a lot more development in rural areas.
The council can't refuse planning permission without a strong justification in planning law for doing so, and if it refuses permission without a good reason then refusal will be overturned at appeal anyway, and the taxpayer will be left with an expensive legal bill.
The only way to change the situation is to adopt a new Local Plan to end the free-for-all by allocating new housing sites and forcing developers to only build on allocated sites. Unless and until we have enough allocated sites to meet the government-imposed house building target (which has doubled to almost 1,200 homes year) then greybelt rules continue to apply as outlined in this report.
As Lib Dems we support new housing, and the one positive of greybelt development is that 50% affordable housing is mandatory, but we think new housing needs to come with good transport links, access to jobs and shops, and proper infrastructure, including enough school and GP places. Allowing developers to cherry-pick rural sites for development, as the government has done, will not result in sustainable communities.