Hands Off Our Land: Housing estates will not be ‘plonked’ next to villages, pledges David Cameron
I know I cant leave it alone and I should but I still fail to find anything in the draft National Planning Policy Framework which justifies that level of anxiety expressed by rural conservation campaigners.
This article in a sequence of campaigning salvos on the issue in the Telegraph explains: The Prime Minster suggested that the new planning rules which will fast-track planning decisions would be limited to schemes of fewer than 30 homes to avoid creating more urban sprawl.
Mr Cameron wants to cut 1,300 pages of planning guidance down to just 52 pages in a new ‘National Planning Policy Framework’, which critics say puts too great an emphasis on economic development.
The draft NPPF has been heavily criticised for making it easier for developers to build on rural parts of England, and is being fought by campaigners. The Daily Telegraph is also urging rethink through its Hands Off Our Land campaign.”
His comments come as ministers are drawing up a new version of draft planning reforms which they hope will head off fierce criticism from countryside campaigners. The proposals are due to be published next month.
Few people I know are in favour of urban sprawl but there are plenty who would welcome a straightforward route to up to 30 new houses in rural communities with a population below 3000. In many of these places current exception policy requirements effectively choke off much prospect of any rural housing and provide no scope whatsoever for rural affordable housing.