Agenda item

To invite discussion and seek agreement from the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee to Tendring District Council’s formal response to the Government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system.

The Committee considered a report of the Director (Planning) (A.2) which invited discussion and its agreement to Tendring District Council’s formal response to the Government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system.

Those changes were the subject of a public consultation, running for eight weeks from 30th July – 24th September 2024. The consultation material consisted of 15 chapters of explanatory text outlining the proposed changes, and 106 focussed questions about the proposals. The full consultation document was included at Appendix 1 to the report (A.2), with the Officers’ suggested response to each question included in bold text for easy identification and for Members’ consideration.

The key concerns and ideas that Officers had raised throughout the suggested response included:-

•    The imposition of top-down housebuilding targets on a mandatory basis with no scope for local circumstances, constraints or exceptional circumstances to be taken into account;

•    The significant practical implications of reintroducing the requirement to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply at the same time as dramatically increasing housing targets, which created a ‘cliff-edge’ scenario for the Council come January 2026 and looked realistically unachievable;

•    The need for Government to provide financial support to Local Authorities to deliver the required infrastructure to facilitate housing development of the scale proposed;

•    The need for financial support to deliver a greater amount of affordable and social housing as part of such a step-change in overall housing delivery; and

•    The importance of retaining local control of large-scale infrastructure projects, rather than expanding the NSIP regime.

Members were informed that many of the questions in the consultation related to ‘Green Belt’ policy, which was of no direct relevance to the District of Tendring, and it was suggested that no comments be offered in response to those matters.

The Committee commented on the following aspects of the Government’s consultation and the Council’s proposed response thereto:-

(1)    Ensuring that retired residents could remain close to their friends if they chose to “downsize”;

(2)    Acknowledge that TDC is in the hands of others when it comes to highways and other infrastructure and that TDC should stress that in its response;

(3)    Pressing the Government further to allow Councils to build their own homes in order to deliver more housing for social rent;

(4)    Request mandatory planning requirement for new housing to provide facilities for recycling water e.g. through rainwater collection;

(5)    Request higher statutory fees for retrospective planning applications; and

(6)    Press for a ‘New House Levy’ to provide funds for Councils to provide the recycling facilities for those households.

The Chairman requested that the District’s two Members of Parliament be briefed on this important matter and that they be urged to ‘lobby’ the Government on behalf of the residents of the District.

At the invitation of the Chairman, the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning (Councillor Baker) commented on the subject matter of this item.

Having duly taken all of the above information into account and having discussed the matter:-

It was moved by Councillor Fairley, seconded by Councillor Chapman BEMand unanimously:-

RESOLVED that the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee –

a)     notes the content of this report;

b)     endorses the draft response to the Government consultation, as attached at Appendix 1; and

c)        recommends to the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning, that the draft response, subject to the Members’ comments made at this meeting, be approved and be submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government before the close of the consultation on 24^th September 2024.