What might the General Election mean for planning policy and the built and natural environment?
With less than one week to go until we all head to the polls, we have summarised the key policies and promises made in relation to housing, planning, energy and climate, and infrastructure by the key political parties.
Whilst there is clear consensus amongst the parties that planning reform is needed, the length that the parties are proposing to go to and the priorities of each differ significantly.
- Labour are promising to build 1.5m new homes over the next Parliament, prioritising brownfield development but also taking a strategic approach to releasing lower quality ‘grey belt’ land across the green belt. They have pledged to build a series of large-scale new communities across England, strengthen planning obligations to ensure affordable housing is provided, reverse recent NPPF changes and reform compulsory purchase compensation. They have also pledged to create Great British Energy, a new publicly-owned company to deliver clean power with the aim of clean energy by 2030, to bring railways under public ownership, and to set out new national policy statements to ‘slash red tape’ and ensure the planning system meets the needs of a modern economy.
- The Conservatives are promising 1.7m new homes, but instead with a ‘cast iron’ commitment to the green belt and increasing density levels in inner London. They have reiterated their commitment to the proposed new infrastructure levy and pledge to ‘focus’ the role of statutory consultees. They aim to triple offshore wind capacity to achieve net zero by 2050, and support solar on brownfield sites and rooftops, but not on best agricultural land, and will introduce a ‘right to challenge’ existing onshore wind schemes. Their promise to slash times for major infrastructure planning consents from four years to one is also met with promises for quicker revisions to national policy statements and consented NSIPs.
- The Liberal Democrats are instead promising a yearly target of 380,000 new homes, including 150,000 social homes, with an expansion of neighbourhood planning across England and ten new garden cities. They also pledge to reform CPO hope value and encourage development on existing brownfield sites. They are the only party to include policies on biodiversity net gain, and will require up to 100% net gain for large developments as well as a new general duty of care for the environment. On energy, they promise to invest in renewable power so that 90% of the UK’s electricity is generated from renewables by 2030 and will remove restrictions on new solar and wind power.
- The Green Party’s housing target is 150,000 new social homes a year, and will empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use. They are committed to protecting the green belt but promise to transform the planning system so new developments come with access to green spaces, prioritising smaller developments spread out rather than huge new estates. All planning applications will be required to include whole-life carbon and energy calculations, and material from demolition required to be considered for reuse. They pledge to power up wind energy to provide 70% of the UK’s electricity by 2030, and will push for the removal of regulatory barriers to community energy, end all new fossil fuel extraction, support solar, marine, hydropower and geothermal renewables, mandate solar panels on all new homes and significantly expand and improve the efficiency of the grid.
- Reform UK pledge to reform the planning system in the first 100 days, including fast-tracking new housing on brownfield sites. The manifesto does not include any housing targets, but instead states that they will introduce a new ‘loose-fit’ planning policy for large residential developments. They will scrap net zero policies and start fast-track licences of North Sea oil and gas.
The full publication is available to download below.
