Wealden council responds to government’s consultation on planning reforms
Publish Date: 7 October 2024
Wealden District Council has submitted a response to the government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the current planning system.
The government wants to revise the NPPF in order to increase house building and is also seeking views on a series of other wider policy proposals including increases in planning fees.
The consultation considers a new method for calculating housing need in the district – known as the ‘standard method’ – which would increase Wealden’s current housing needs figure by 211 dwellings per annum (dpa) to 1,397 dpa. The council previously published its draft Regulation 18 Wealden Local Plan in March 2024 which outlined that Wealden would be able to deliver 953 dpa.
Other proposed NPPF reforms include transitionary arrangements for Local Plan production, changes to affordable housing and emphasis on renewable energy schemes, as well as changes to national planning policy on transport infrastructure and water infrastructure.
The council has reaffirmed to the government that national landscape and ecological designations within the district – including the High Weald National Landscape, the South Downs National Park, the Ashdown Forest and Pevensey Levels Site amongst others – as well as infrastructure constraints will continue to mean that it will be challenging to meet our housing need.
Councillor Ian Tysh, Alliance for Wealden (Green) and lead councillor for Planning, said, “The government recognises the need for more social housing, the provision of which is badly needed, but the proposed changes to the NPPF will do very little to meet that need.
“The 20% profit margin that the developer-led model of housing provision is based on produces social housing only as an afterthought, and wastes scarce resources on so-called executive homes, yet this consultation does not propose any changes to that model.
“It is also disappointing that the consultation has little to say about the necessary infrastructure being provided alongside new housing, rather than years later or not at all, and that it only pays lip service to making necessary development truly sustainable. Why is there nothing about increasing the provision of public transport or requiring all new housing to be carbon negative or at least carbon neutral?”