NPPF Tries to Mix Oil and Water

The National Planning Policy Framework, the final version of which was published – and comes into effect – this week, is good at polarising opinion.  As someone who thinks we haven’t built enough homes for a generation, under Governments of both Parties, the apparent determination to build more houses is appealing.  A small part of me admires Planning Minister Greg Clark’s willingness to take on some traditional Tory interests in his attempt to do so.  But the NPPF leaves me feeling queasy that it just won’t deliver or it will deliver the wrong things.  Where there are local council plans in existence, it leaves too much scope for NIMBY interests.  Where there are no local plans, the ‘presumption in favour of development’ seems to me to give developers too much rope and too much power.  So the NPPF might just be defining the next battleground between developers and local communities.  Quite correctly, the NPPF says development should be plan-led; but combining localism with thrusting commercial interest is like mixing water and oil – they will separate eventually.  Read more of this opinion piece on the Red Brick blog.