The TCPA is strongly opposed to the radical deregulation of the planning system proposed in the Government’s consultation on ‘additional flexibilities’ to support housing delivery. The twin mechanisms for this deregulation are:
- The extensive expansion of the scale and scope of permitted development rights (PDR), including the removal of the minimum safeguards which the government placed upon permitted development conversion from range of commercial, agricultural and educational uses to residential use.
- The further relaxation of the Use Class Order so buildings and land around them can be converted to new uses with significantly reduced safeguards for communities.
Taken together these measures undermine local democratic control over the quality of placemaking to create sustainable, resilient, healthy and prosperous communities, by:
- removing opportunities for the public to have any meaningful voice over major areas of development;
- undermining the plan-led system because the local plan does not fully apply to PDR decisions;
- further enabling extremely poor-quality development in unsuitable locations which lack basic services and harm local high street economies;
- reducing developer contributions towards affordable homes, local infrastructure and amenities through cutting local tax, CIL and Section 106 requirements; and
- promoting fragmented, car dependent urban sprawl.
This response firstly highlights the array of evidence that has identified significant problems with existing PDR policies, evidence that the consultation entirely fails to acknowledge. Secondly, it responds to the specific proposals in the Government consultation, indicating our clear opposition to these proposals to further deregulate the quality of homes in this country.
Read our full response on the link below.
