Within days the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will mark the culmination of the coalition government's planning reforms. Since before the 2010 general election the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has been working hard to influence these reforms, which have been the subject of fierce public debate. While planning can appear highly technical and prosaic, the outcome will have a profound effect on the nation's landscape, urban and rural, and will leave one of this government's most lasting legacies.
At the heart of the debate is the question of how best to use our limited land resource. Land use planning is a valuable tool to help manage competing pressures on land, through the requirement it places on councils to prepare local plans and grant planning permission for the most significant forms of development.
Groups such as the CPRE view the planning system as a critical, progressive tool for achievement of environmental objectives while accommodating new development. This means minimising unnecessary development of greenfield land – and maximising the benefits of new investment in existing urban areas, where most of us live and work.
It is wrong to suggest this is a conflict between the rural elite and the urban masses. As a nation, we all benefit from the clear distinction between town and country, the ability to reach essential services without a car, easy access to the countryside, and the creation of attractive, vibrant and distinctive places in which to live and work.
Planning must respond to our changing needs but there is no reason why we can't find space for the new houses required over the next few decades and at the same time protect the countryside for the benefit of all; that is, as long as we have a planning system which allows us to do so.
We want the NPPF to recognise the value of land in social and environmental, not just market, terms. It needs to push forward the improvements we have seen in recent years in the reuse of brownfield land for new development to improve the quality of the urban environment and reduce pressure on the countryside.
No one is suggesting we can avoid all greenfield development but recent research has shown that there is enough suitable brownfield land in England to support the provision of 1.5m new homes, with more coming forward as industrial patterns change. As we argued recently, the CPRE want to see the government supporting a powerful and well-resourced planning system as the key to stable, long-term economic prosperity and our quality of life. Central to that should be planning policies that reflect the value we place as a nation on the countryside as a whole, the everyday countryside on our doorstep as well as the national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
All this will require significant improvements to the draft framework, alongside a more enlightened, progressive approach to planning one which avoids capture by short-term interests and ideologies that have no sensible alternatives to offer. We believe it is possible to have a planning system that delivers the coalition's attractive but fragile commitment to greater local self-determination. If it gets these reforms right the government will be thanked by today's voters as well as future generations; if it fails we will bear the costs for years to come.
Neil Sinden is director of policy and campaigns at the Campaign to Protect Rural England
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