During a debate on the 13 March, Daisy Cooper MP challenged the Minister three times to publish guidance to clarify the meaning behind the Government’s changes to National Planning Policy Framework. On all three occasions, the Minister refused to commit. In response to the Debate, Daisy Cooper said:
”The Leader of St Albans District Council has been clear that if the national planning rules were changed, then the council’s draft local plan would change too.
”At best, the new NPPF is unclear and contradictory.
”At worst, from my analysis, it looks like the government’s changes have *strengthened* the requirement to meet top-down targets, not softened them, without any way for St Albans to reduce them to accommodate the government-imposed Rail Freight Interchange (which could potentially house 2,500-3000 homes instead) and/or to protect some undeveloped greenbelt sites.
”Equally, the governments own guidance says that “exceptional circumstances” are – for example – limited to extreme examples such as “island communities with no land bridge”, and appears deliberately silent on Green Belt constraints.
”I’ve long maintained that the government’s top down approach doesn’t solve our local housing crisis, doesn’t deliver the homes we need, but does destroy undeveloped greenbelt.
”We need absolute clarity on the guidance for local plans, so that they aren’t needlessly failed.
”I challenged the Minister *THREE TIMES* to publish guidance to clarify the meaning behind the government’s changes – but on all three occasions, she refused to commit. On my fourth attempt at asking, she decided to just keep going.
”Until they publish guidance, it seems to me that the government – once again – are happy to say one thing, and do another.”