Article by Cllr Dick Cole published in the Cornish Guardian newspaper (2nd October 2024)

The consultation into the latest version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) ended last week and, as I usually do, I submitted comments on behalf of Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall. Previous representations have gone unheeded and I do not have any great hopes that critics of the UK Government’s approach to planning policy will be listened to now.

In my response to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, I made the argument that politicians and communities in Cornwall have very limited control over planning; and this revised policy document makes that situation worse.

The top-down NPPF very much dictates how local authorities approach planning policy and what they can and cannot put in their “local plans.” All versions of the NPPF have had a “presumption in favour” of development. More recently, this has been couched as implicit support for “sustainable” growth – but much of what has subsequently happened hasn’t, from my perspective, been very sustainable.

This latest incarnation of the document further centralises planning policy and takes certain decisions even further away from local communities. It imposes a housing target on Cornwall, the extent of which is frankly ridiculous; it suggests that there will be “cross-boundary” “strategic planning,” which would undermine the territorial integrity of Cornwall; and it warns of greater controls on “local plans” and threatens top-down “interventions,” which would undermine community planning and local democracies.

In terms of the new housing target to be imposed on Cornwall, it will increase the annual expectation from 2,625 units (in the present draft of the Cornwall Local Plan) to 4,545 new properties. Such a figure is unsustainable but, even if it was appropriate, it is manifestly not undeliverable.

What is more, having such a target of perceived “need” will undermine planning processes. And even though there are thousands and thousands of consented properties, which have yet to be built, the lack of actual “delivery” against the impossible figure of 4,545 will mean that yet more consents will be pushed through regardless of local policy and the view of nearby residents.

There is indeed a housing crisis but making it easier for developers to push ahead with developments that are dominated by unrestricted open-market housing will do little to improve that situation. I will undoubtedly cover what I think the Government should actually be doing in future columns.

The NPPF will only cover Cornwall and England, as the other Celtic parts of the UK have devolved administrations with full control over planning. It will surprise no-one that MK has called for a devolution settlement that will allow us to produce our own NPPF.