Article by Cllr Dick Cole to be published in the Cornish Guardian and West Briton newspapers (11th December 2024)

The Deputy Prime Minister made a number of television appearances over the weekend to outline the Labour Government’s approach to planning. This was in advance of the publication of a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Angela Rayner spoke about overhauling planning rules and sometimes even bypassing local authorities, in order to remove “subjectiveness” from the system. Others from the Government have made statements about streamlining the planning process and rubberstamping development proposals. Obviously, planning is not just about housing, but the Government’s drive is clearly linked to their manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million new properties (in England) over the next five years – with mandatory targets for local authorities.

I have written before about how I disagree with Labour’s top-down approach to planning. It is worth pointing out that the Local Government Association has said that “far from planning delays being to blame for holding up house-building, a million proposed homes had in fact been agreed in principle by councils in their local strategies, but developers had not brought forward plans.” There are also planning consents for over 26,000 housing units in Cornwall, which have yet to be completed.

Labour is now declaring that it wants to “fast-track” applications which are consistent with central government’s NPPF and “locally agreed plans.” And herein lies a massive problem for Cornwall. The Government has announced that the annual housing target for Cornwall will be 4,454 – 70% up on the present target of 2,625.

If Angela Rayner and her team do not reduce this unsustainable and frankly unachievable target, it will mean that the unitary authority will be unable to demonstrate a “five year housing land supply.” The housing supply policies in the Cornwall Local Plan will then be considered out-of-date and significantly less weight will be placed on this “locally agreed plan.”

Staff at Cornwall Council are doing preparatory work for a new Local Plan, but the formal work on the document will not be able to commence until the second half of 2025, and it is unlikely to be completed until 2028 or 2029. This means that Cornwall will be deemed to have out-of-date policies for the next four-five years and it will be in an extremely weak position during all, or almost all, of the term of this Starmer government.

This week I will be attending the first meeting of the Cornwall Growth Board, a sub-committee of the unitary authority’s ruling Cabinet. It presently has the duty to oversee the preparation of the next Local Plan and I will be calling for better engagement with elected councillors and local communities.