Pickles officially axes “Soviet-style” regional planning
Communities secretary Eric Pickles will slam the previous government’s “Soviet-style” housing targets today, as he officially revokes Regional Spatial Strategies.
Pickles has made a statement to parliament to end the imposition of the strategies with immediate effect, and will announce it at the Local Government Association’s conference in Bournemouth later today.
The speech follows a letter sent to local authorities in May asking them to act as though the strategies had been scrapped. This has created consternation among housing developers and property trade associations, with some accusing the move of putting development in limbo.
Today, the government’s chief planner Steve Quartermain has written to planning bosses local authorities advising them how to address the changess. That letter is here.
In his speech, Pickles will say: “Communities will no longer have to endure the previous government’s failed Soviet tractor style top-down planning targets – they were a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building and worst of all threatened the destruction of the Green Belt.
“I promised to get rid of them and today I’m revoking regional plans with immediate effect – hammering another nail in the coffin of unwanted and an unaccountable regional bureaucracy. They were a national disaster that robbed local people of their democratic voice, alienating them and entrenching opposition against new development.
“Regional Strategies built nothing but resentment – we want to build houses. So instead we will introduce powerful new incentives for local people so they support the construction of new homes in the right places and receive direct rewards from the proceeds of growth to improve their local area.”
Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said moer clarity was needed to manage the transition to a new planning system. “We risk major problems ahead without direction that puts councils at ease and gives them confidence that going ahead with development will not lead them into costly legal challenges,” she said.
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[...] communities secretary Eric Pickles has officially scrapped the regional tier of planning, including housing [...]
[...] government minister Eric Pickles said: “Communities will no longer have to endure the previous government’s failed Soviet tractor [...]
Yes, we want affordable houses and we also need larger houses for growing families especially as more and more adults are living with their parents. People should be allowed to live in a good environment not like caged animals, which is what happens once councils let go of an area for planning. Still leaving large unsighty and/or unused so called washed over greenbelt areas where both types of housing could be accommodated. Not allowed because of the NIMBY type approach. Alright for the Nimby’s who have high paid jobs and can afford to live part time in the area just staying and ensuring no one else has an opportunity to live in the area. Villages have over the last 100years and more shrunk the size of churches when you travel throughout the country proves that many more people once lived in these areas. Black death and wars depleted village communities. No we do not and could not fill our land with properties and have no green space, but who is the greenspace for, just the rich. Projects could be introduced into villages allowing small infill sites with both affordable and larger homes. Villages lack many things not just shops and pubs but local rural labour who provide the gardening, horticultural and agricultural experience, their homes have been knocked together to form 1 home for a rich family. They have then left theland where their heart is to do soul destroying jobs in towns. Are we always going to condemn rural live until it becomes extinct. We need to have small developments , I mean say 1/2 large properties or 3/5 cottages built in style to match what is already apparent.Small developments enable the small building companies to gain the necessary experience to grow into large developers and they also are best fitted to develope tradespersons and new designs. What are your plans? Now is the time to regenerate the industry by releasing the unused and unsightly pockets within our rural areas.
[...] The court has given its judgment in the judicial review brought by housebuilder Cala Homes against the revocation of regional planning. It found that the secretary of state for Communities and Local Government acted unlawfully in unilaterally revoking the “Soviet-style” system in July. [...]
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