Democracy in planning under threat
In the 1990s, CPRE campaigned vigorously to defend the public’s historic right to attend and participate in Planning Committees – then under threat from the ‘streamlining’ trend. We succeeded; but in practice that right has been eroded and now is under serious threat.
Government action is threatening the democratic basis of community-led planning: the system in which you elect your local councillors and you believe that they will reflect your community’s wishes in deciding planning applications.
In practice, while the council’s Local Development Plan is democratically devised and approved, around 85% of all planning applications are approved or refused by Planning Officers under ‘delegated powers’. Now, the government wants to make that an even high percentage.
We’re already seeing local authority decisions made properly under the terms of their approved Local Plan policies overturned on appeal by government Inspectors; and local authorities threatened with having their planning powers taken away if they refuse too many applications and then lose more than 15% of the resulting appeals.
Planning and Infrastructure Bill 2025
In the 1990s, CPRE campaigned vigorously to defend the public’s historic right to attend and participate in Planning Committees – then under threat from the ‘streamlining’ trend. We succeeded; but in practice that right has been eroded and now is under serious threat.
Government action is threatening the democratic basis of community-led planning: the system in which you elect your local councillors and you believe that they will reflect your community’s wishes in deciding planning applications.
In practice, while the council’s Local Development Plan is democratically devised and approved, around 85% of all planning applications are approved or refused by Planning Officers under ‘delegated powers’. Now, the government wants to make that an even high percentage.
We’re already seeing local authority decisions made properly under the terms of their approved Local Plan policies overturned on appeal by government Inspectors; and local authorities threatened with having their planning powers taken away if they refuse too many applications and then lose more than 15% of the resulting appeals.
The PIB introduces sweeping reforms to our democratic Planning system to remove obstacles and ‘get Britain building’. In the government’s words: ‘Bold action is needed to remove the blockers who put a chokehold on growth. That’s why we are putting growth at the heart of our planning system.’ By ‘blockers’, the government have made it clear they mean you, the public, and your elected representatives. These are some of the key reforms:
- Faster Planning Approvals
‘Streamlining’ developer-community consultations, speeding up planning consents, limiting legal challenges and allowing building to continue even while legal challenges are going on
- More Power to Officers
More delegation of decision-making to Council officers; less decided by elected Councillors. All councillors involved in planning decisions to undergo ‘training’ (content as yet unspecified)
- Limited Public Input
New regional Development Plans with no ‘right to appear’ for the public during their creation
- Cheap Land Acquisition
Compulsory purchase of land at existing (agricultural?) value
What Does This Mean for Devon?
With Devon’s housing targets UP by 59%, it means even more housing on greenfield sites, with less opportunity for local residents or even their elected Councillors to object. The majority of houses will still be being built for maximum profit by the Big 6 housebuilding companies, with nowhere near enough social/rental/affordable housing for our children and key workers.
The government believes that the answer to the housing crisis is to give ever more planning consents, ever quicker, to six huge corporate housebuilding companies, in the hope that they will flood their own market and so devalue their own product. Which will, of course, never happen. But in the meantime, they are trying to clear ‘blockers’ like you, and us, out of their way.
Local Government Reorganisation
The English Devolution White Paper 2024 proposed a radical reorganisation of local government, described by the Deputy Prime Minister as ‘nothing less than a completely new way of governing, a generational project of determined devolution’.
- All County and District Councils are to be abolished. New Unitary Authorities will take their place, each covering populations of up to 500,000 people.
- In Devon, there are likely to be three: Plymouth, a southern block comprising Torquay, Teignbridge, the South Hams and West Devon; and a northern block covering Exeter, Torridge, North Devon, Mid Devon and East Devon
- New Strategic Authorities would be built above them, covering populations of 1.5 million, with elected Mayors conducting all their negotiations with central government
‘Local’ authorities will now be huge – a single planning authority could be trying to cover an area of up to 1000 square miles; and the cash-strapped councils after an expensive merger process will be not be opening satellite offices all over their domains. Planning decisions could be being made up to 50 miles away from where you live; undoubtedly dramatically reducing the number of members of the public who are able to participate in them.