Part I - Michael Gove on planning reform
All those attending must have greatly appreciated the work done by Wildlife & Countryside Link in preparing an outstanding and highly focussed conference in London on 6th December 2021, featuring two Secretaries of State: Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities talking about planning reform and George Eustice, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs discussing the Environment Act 2021 (covered in the second part of these notes).
Michael Gove’s remarks were significant because of an expected Planning Bill early in 2022. The earlier policy emphasis on ‘build, build, build’ and sweeping away any planning law obstacles to achieving that did not find favour with Conservative MPs in some Southern constituencies, and some voters in recent by-elections. Mr Gove’s approach was expected to place more emphasis on the “levelling up” part of his responsibilities.
Michael Gove noted that each department had a role on the 25 year plan on the environment. All new housing developments needed to contribute to the overall target of keeping any increase in emissions limited to 1.5%.
Net Zero was a huge issue, with the existing housing stock and its issues with home heating.
He argued that the planning system currently satisfied no one, and needed to meet both democratic sentiment but also environmental concerns. There was nothing wrong with a target, the UK undoubtedly needed more homes, but planning policy also needed to reflect other objectives.
He introduced the idea of the acronym ‘BIDEN’ (not thought to refer to the President) as setting out some of his preferred contents for house planning policy –
BEAUTY new housing needed to comprise both architectural quality but also community aspects such as access to green spaces;
INFRASTRUCTURE there has been resistance to new build without addressing wider issues such as access to services, GPs, air quality – attention to these would increase buy-in;
DEMOCRACY this comprised the need to take people with you;
ENVIRONMENT this included issues such as Biodiversity Net Gain, but also better data, (opened up to local people) and plans to capture and apply part of the uplift value “for the benefit of the community”;
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
this covered meaningful ways of getting people involved in planning.