Gove is more loose-lipped on the planning reforms he is introducing later this week aimed at boosting housebuilding on brownfield sites in the country’s biggest cities.
He is proposing a change to national planning policy to apply the presumption in favour of sustainable development to planning applications on brownfield land in the 20 largest cities and urban centres, where housing delivery has dropped below expected levels.
The announcement will build on the long-term plan for housing that he set out in July, when he proposed the creation of more than a dozen new development corporations that would be able to use compulsory purchase orders and grant planning permission to boost building in urban areas.
These are expected to begin in the eight regions identified as investment zones, which include Sheffield, the Tees Valley and Leeds, before being extended to other areas in need of levelling up. A “new urban quarter” will also be created in Cambridge, designed to provide 250,000 homes along with laboratory space to help the region to compete with California’s Silicon Valley.
Gove is pushing for the development of brownfield sites in the largest urban areas in the country, with new developments expected to begin in places such as the Tees Valley
“Our cities are much more land-hungry than comparable European cities,” Gove said. “So Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester are all much more spread out. The time that’s taken in commuting, the extent to which land has been swallowed up mean that they’re less dense. That creates additional environmental costs.
“There’ll be a general presumption that if you are building or converting a property in a brownfield location, that planning permission should be granted automatically.” A “nimby” council will not be able to stand in the way of a developer, he said.
The last thing Sheffield, Leeds and Tees Valley could be called is Nimby. There is already a presumption in favour if below 5YHLS. This would be the layering on of a triple presumption. What about poor design, failure to meet other national policy? We know internationally that where you introduce ‘as of right’ in urban areas you need clear parameters, i.e on lot size, height etc for it to work. You cant be half pregenet and this is half doing zoning, badly, again.
How will this apply with regards to redevelopment of existing housing in suburban areas like Croydon and Barnet, noting these count as previously developed sites. Noting also Grove doesn’t mention Birmingham and London, presumably because they don’t want the consequences of the policy being twigged before the May Mayoral elections.
What also about minimum standards for things like flat conversions?
Major amendments to the NPPF less than two months since the last – and with no change to underlying urban policy – pure chaos.
Empty high street shops could be quickly converted to homes under an expected relaxation of planning laws.
Michael Gove is expected to announce that a law allowing commercial buildings to be turned into homes without planning permission will extend to shops and offices of any size.
It will also cut the need for them to have been empty for a period of time.
Labour said the plan was an old idea and that home approvals in brownfield areas had halved under Tory rule.
It comes six months after Mr Gove, the housing secretary, first flagged that his department was working on relaxing planning rules.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says the proposed amendments to planning law will still require buildings to be safe, uphold good standards of living space and have natural light.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 