Responding to the Labour Chancellor’s announcements on changes to the planning system:
Daisy Cooper MP for St Albans said:
“I welcome the Government’s plans to turbocharge on-shore wind and provide 300 additional planning officers across England, as both of these are policies I had called for in the last parliament. Expanding renewable energy to bring energy bills down and tackle the climate emergency has got to be a priority in the months and years ahead.
“I am bitterly disappointed however that this government intends to continue with a regime of top-down housing targets. In previous cross-party debates, I have made the case to both Conservative and Labour politicians that top-down targets simply don’t deliver the homes that we need in St Albans, but does mean bulldozing over our precious green belt.
“As ever, the details in any changes to the targets and planning rules will be crucial. I’ll scrutinise the proposals closely and challenge the government robustly if their plans fail our local area. I will also repeat my calls for targets to be reduced where local authorities are forced by central government to accommodate national infrastructure, such as the Strategic Rail Freight Interchange in Park Street, which occupies space equivalent to 490 football pitches.”
Victoria Collins MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted said:
“The continuation of a top-down approach from this Labour government will be a blow to our communities across Harpenden and Berkhamsted, but especially in areas that face development on our most valued green spaces to meet existing top-down targets.
“Liberal Democrats have called for a community-led planning system, which would deliver the truly affordable homes we need, while giving protection to our green spaces. I’m grateful to the leadership shown by Liberal Democrat councillors at St Albans District Council in developing the local plan. Without their efforts we remain at the mercy of developers who were given carte blanche to build across the district by the two failed plans from the previous Conservative administrations.”
Cllr Paul de Kort, Leader of St Albans District Council said:
“This move by Labour to steamroller councils into delivering top-down targets is incredibly damaging, but not unexpected. Essentially there is no change to our local plan strategy on the basis of this announcement. That’s because there has been no change to government policy in terms of targets. We’re still required to meet them, but now at least the Labour government is being transparent about the expectation, in contrast to the Conservatives who hid behind contradictory and misleading language in press releases and in the National Planning Policy Framework.
“The council will be reviewing the details of any changes to the rules closely. The announcement today vindicates our decision to press ahead with our already well advanced draft local plan, and we will defend any attempts by Labour to set aside any more green belt for development than the Conservatives had already forced us to do. Adopting a new local plan will allow us to curb the damaging speculative development we are currently experiencing. So there is urgency whatever national planning regime is in place.”