21 Dec 2023
In a revised and updated article, we examine Michael Gove’s changes to the National Planning Policy Framework and his criticism of delays to SADC’s Local Plan.
To build or not to build? That is the question… St Albans district council seems caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to balancing between the creation of a workable Local Plan and protecting the district’s precious Green Belt.
The struggle became even more contentious this week, when Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, put SADC firmly in the spotlight for its “persistent failure” to deliver a Local Plan, which, he says, “has left your communities vulnerable to speculative development and has risked not delivering the economic growth and infrastructure they need”.
Mr Gove also provided a long-overdue update to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), in which he set out his plans for reforms to the planning system.
St Albans was one of seven councils named and shamed in a written ministerial statement made by Mr Gove on Tuesday.
It was followed up with a letter to council leader Cllr Chris White and chief executive Amanda Foley in which he stated: “Given the poor progress your authority has made towards adopting a plan over the last 19 years, I have considered whether I am justified in using my powers of intervention to ensure that your authority has an up-to-date timetable which indicates whether you will submit a draft plan in the current system…
“In relation to your emerging draft plan, your proposed submission date has shifted from April 2023 to December 2024. Any further delay to plan progress would jeopardise your draft plan being able to be submitted in the current system…
“I have concluded that to ensure full and effective coverage of [SADC]’s area by a development plan… I am directing [SADC} to revise their Local Development Scheme [the timetable for delivery of a Local Plan] within 12 weeks of the publication of the revised NPPF…
“Should you fail to comply with the direction in this letter, or should you delay progress of your emerging draft plan in relation to your LDS milestones, I will consider whether I need to take any further intervention action.”
In his ministerial statement, Mr Gove said he was setting new expectations for faster delivery of Local Plans, strengthening accountability so poor performers can be better identified, and would be taking further steps to enforce effective delivery of new housing where local authorities have failed most egregiously.
“I will make sure every local authority is held to account for delivery against its plan, for the speed with which planning applications are processed, and the rationality of their decision-making.”
Mr Gove also explained how the changes to the NPPF would work in practice: “It provides clearer protection for the Green Belt, clarity on how future housing supply should be assessed in plans, certainty on the responsibility of urban authorities to play their full part in meeting housing need and protections for the character of precious neighbourhoods, safeguarding the gentle density of suburbs and ensuring family homes are there for the next generation.”
He insisted that the outcome of the Standard Method for assessing local housing need was now only advisory and a starting point for determining housing requirements.
“Where a local authority considers the number unachievable, it must provide robust evidence for that judgement.”
Mr Gove also confirmed the Government’s commitment to protecting the Green Belt.
“The Green Belt is vital for preventing urban sprawl and encroachment on valued countryside. England’s cities are already less dense than those of most of our European neighbours. That is environmentally wasteful and economically inefficient. We seek to support the gentle densification of urban areas in preference to the erosion of Green Belt land.
“That is why the Government is ensuring it is clear there is generally no requirement on local authorities to review or alter Green Belt boundaries if this would be the only way to meet housing need. Where a relevant local planning authority chooses to conduct a review, existing national policy will continue to expect that Green Belt boundaries are only altered where exceptional circumstances are fully evidenced and justified, and this should only be through the preparation or updating of plans.”
SADC leader Cllr Chris White. who also heads the district’s planning committee, appeared on Tuesday’s BBC Radio 4 World At One show to talk to presenter Sarah Montague about being “named and shamed” by Michael Gove.
He said: “I think if someone’s going to slag you off by Twitter and in a speech it would have been nice to be informed in advance. But I think we have some fairly straightforward answers to this. His department is fully aware of our timetable for submitting a [Local Plan]. Now, obviously, if his officials haven’t passed these details on to him, we’re happy to send them to him direct. But we have a timetable, it’s in the public domain, his officials are happy with it.
“We are no more happy with not having an up-to-date Local Plan in place than he is, or indeed our residents or developers. But to be singled out as if we’re sort of deliberately doing this is a bit much, to say the least.”
Sarah said having listened to Mr Gove’s speech the presumption was that SADC just hadn’t got its act together because there was no Local Plan in place.
Cllr White responded: “It’s not a side issue for this council, it’s the number one issue. It has its own committee, we’re in the middle of a consultation.
“Quite a lot of people kept saying to us, you should delay this consultation because of what Michael Gove is saying about housing numbers. But we took the view that we will proceed at the fastest possible speed in the existing regulations because we get the powers of the Secretary of State. So to suggest somehow we are sitting on our backsides, not doing anything, and indeed ignoring what he’s saying, is, as I say, a bit much. We are going full pelt and we will be producing the next stage of our consultation in the middle of next year.”
Sarah asked if he was suggesting SADC was going as fast as the government will allow, to which Cllr White responded: “Well yes, I mean it’s not a quick process. You have to produce a document, you then have to send it to various consultees, not just the public but for instance the county council, who then respond. The county council response to our Local Plan was actually longer than the plan itself. We have to wade through all these technical responses about education and highways and so forth. We’re happy to do so, but there is a limited resource.
“The MP for St Albans wrote to Mr Gove and said, ”Can this council and others like it have additional resources to speed up Local Plan making?’ And his department’s response was, no you can’t.”
In her letter, MP Daisy Cooper told Mr Gove: “In response for a recent call for sites, a whopping 200 sites were put forward by developers… As a result, St Albans planning department has estimated that the additional cost that is required to fund the necessary planning consultants and expertise is around £150,000 for the next two years. For SADC to implement the Local Plan in time, they need to ensure that a comprehensive and diligent planning survey is carried out in the area.
“Currently they are endeavouring to do so with the limited resources available but additional funding for this specific purpose would be game-changing to allow the Plan to progress in a timely manner.”
Continuing his World At One interview, Cllr White said there was no problem in producing a timetable for their Local Plan within the period specified: “We can do that probably tomorrow afternoon. I mean, the timetable is there in public domain, so there’s no additional work to be done there, we’ve been very, very careful.
Cllr White said the government had imposed high housing targets on St Albans, and Mr Gove’s suggestion that this did not necessarily mean building on the Green Belt was unfeasible: “For a place like St Albans, other sites are also in the Green Belt. So that is a bit crass. Or we go high rise and build 20-storey blocks like what we’re starting to see in parts of Hertfordshire, I don’t think that’s what [Mr Gove[ wants and it’s certainly not what’s wanted by local people. So frankly a massively unhelpful intervention, preferably for people who are getting on with it with limited resources which they refuse to top up.
“We are building a lot [of homes] already, All sorts of places are allocated and more places are being allocated under the draft Local Plan.”
But the response to Mr Gove’s announcement about Green Belt housing has been welcomed in other quarters.
Harpenden Tory Parliamentary candidate Nigel Gardner begged SADC to use their new powers to save local Green Belt.
“I call on the Lib Dem council – frankly I beg them – to use their new rights, and do what’s right.
“Please scrap your plans to build thousands of houses on the Green Belt around Harpenden, Redbourn and Wheathampstead – and save our countryside and access to our local public services
“This announcement is great news for the people of Harpenden and their descendants. Whatever your politics, it means we can leave what’s left of our Green Belt countyside to future generations. I’ve seen us lose too much of it in my lifetime.”
Cllr Teresa Heritage, planning policy spokesperson for the Conservative group on SADC, added: “We are delighted that The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, has recognised the importance of the Green Belt and Conservation Areas in the new National Planning Policy Guidance and this in turn will protect the Green Belt and conservations areas in Harpenden and the villages in the district.
“We will now continue to press the Lib Dem-led district council to re-evaluate the land allocated for housing in Harpenden and the villages. We will work with the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Harpenden and the villages, Nigel Gardner, local groups and political parties of any colour to ensure that our Green Belt and areas of special character continue to be protected.”
Local campaign groups have also responded to this week’s developments.
Gee Smeadley, spokesperson for CLASH – fighting to save north St Albans from development – said: “We welcome enhanced Green Belt protections in the new NPPF. Green Belt is vital for healthy cities, providing our clean air, clean water and food. As well has health and recreation activities.
“We have always strongly contested the ‘housing need’ figures calculated by a spurious method with an outdated set of data from 2014.
“Make no mistake, our area is in high demand by speculative developers due to the high developed land values and repeated inappropriate applications have put huge strain on local communities as the proposals fail deliver the infrastructure needed, such as safe roads for all users. The devil will be in the detail of the new NPPF, which we will be closely reviewing.
“St Albans district council needs to deliver both a timely Local Plan and a sound Plan. The reason we are in this situation and have been called out by central Government, is because the two previous failed Plans. There are worrying signs that the current Plan is also on track to being found unsound and the status quo allowing speculative developers to build on Green Belt will remain.”
Paul King of campaign group Greenbelt said: “Once the dust settles on this week’s conversations, statements and instructions regarding planning policy, the question remains; will the leadership of St Albans district council persist on their current path of concreting over large areas of the Green Belt in the draft Local Plan?
“In the media, Chris White endured considerable criticism from Michael Gove about the lack of an up-to-date Local Plan, however this criticism was slightly misdirected.
“The Council has progressed very rapidly towards creating a new Local Plan, so much so that there is no firm evidence base, they are attempting to meet an unrealistically high housing need figure, and as a consequence plan to wipe out great swathes of the Green Belt in the district.
The new NPPF makes it clear not only that there is no need to build on the Green Belt, but that they should not do so.
“Does St Albans council leadership think that building on the Green Belt is ’fully evidenced and justified’? Do the council think that they have to build on the Green Belt to meet housing need?
“It is now up to the council to review the draft Local Plan that went out to consultation in the summer, and adjust it to take into account the new reality. They can no longer hide behind the lack of clarity from the Government.
“Any choice to continue with the proposed development on Green Belt in the district will be a choice that the council are making, not a course of action that they are being forced into.”
Keep Chiswell Green spokesperson Shirani St Ledger McCarthy said they were delighted that the revised NPPF has finally been published, but did not feel it went far enough to protect the Green Belt and still gave too much power to unelected planning officers.
“The uncertainty over the last 12 months has been crippling for all those involved in the planning system. However, the changes to the NPPF as regards protections for the Green Belt are very nuanced and essentially don’t give much more protection than there already was.
“The worrying element for St Albans is that local planning officers can still push through building on the Green Belt by including it in the Local Plan, with the Government curbing the powers of our elected councillors to go against planning officer recommendations.
“These planning officers are the equivalent of civil servants for local authorities; they are employed by SADC and many live outside the district, unlike the local councillors whom we elect and who work voluntarily on behalf of their community.
“The revenue that comes into local and county councils from new developments – the £18,000 new homes bonus to start with which the local authority receives from the Government for every new home built in the district – may be one reason that planning officers are so pro-development.
“SADC, like many other councils across the country, is struggling financially; it has had to increase parking charges, for example, in order to raise more revenue, so additional revenue from new developments is very welcome. KCG, along with the other members of the District Green Belt Alliance, has been watching the development of the district’s new Local Plan.
“Planning officers have recommended removing nearly 2,000 acres of land from the Green Belt in order to build over 15,000 new houses.
“District councillors have challenged the officers’ inclusion of many of the sites ear-marked for development – notably Cllr David Mitchell (Redbourn), Theresa Heritage and John Galvin (Harpenden), and Tony Lillico (London Colney) – but have been told repeatedly that the evidence base necessary to be able to decide the suitability of these sites will not be available for some time yet.
“Despite the Regulation 18 public consultation and representations by councillors, these sites, which local residents know are unsuitable, have not been removed from the draft plan by planning officers.
“Councillors are, understandably, very concerned that sites that local people know are not suitable remain included.
“The planning officers are not listening to local residents and their elected representatives, but the newly published guidance from Mr Gove gives planning departments more power over elected councillors, and more of an obligation to deliver Local Plans. This does not bode well for local residents in St Albans who are keen to protect the Green Belt.”
