23 Dec 2025
Local political leaders have reacted to the Government’s pre-Christmas announcement of major changes to planning laws.
Last week the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched a consultation on a major overhaul of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The Labour Government says the aim is to create a clearer, more rules-based planning system, where developments that meet requirements can move forward with greater certainty.
They say this will make the system easier to navigate for communities, councils and developers alike, while unlocking growth, supporting rural communities and protecting nature at scale.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: “Right now we see a planning system that still isn’t working well enough. A system saying ‘no’ more often than it says ‘yes’ and that favours obstructing instead of building.
“It has real-world consequences for those aspiring to own a home of their own and those hoping to escape so-called temporary accommodation – we owe it to the people of this country to do everything within our power to build the homes they deserve.
“We’ve already laid the groundwork to get Britain building but our planning overhaul was only the first step to fix the housing crisis we face. And today I’m going further than ever before to hit 1.5 million homes and place the key to homeownership into the hands of thousands more hardworking people and families.”
But Liberal Democrat MP for St Albans Daisy Cooper is not convinced.
She said: “This is the third year in a row when successive Governments have dropped hundreds of pages of proposed planning changes into the public domain just days before Christmas. This is simply no way to develop planning policy in a coherent way.
“This year, the proposed changes run to 250 pages and I’m told include 3,000 specific changes. It’s going to take some time for me to chew through what this means for our area, but it is already obvious that if the Government goes ahead with these proposed changes then our villages will bear the brunt.
“Green Belt protection is explicitly there to protect the character and identity of individual villages. Yet this set of changes looks to rip that up so if these changes are pursued, it appears as though there could be almost nothing to stop our villages all being merged into each other through new housing developments.
“Given the profound impact this could have in our area, I managed to table a question to the Government just before Christmas to ask if this was a mistake or whether it is seriously their intention. I hope they answer it directly before the New Year. I urge any individual or community group with concerns to write to me in the coming weeks so I can raise them with the Government.”
And SADC leader Cllr Paul de Kort was also unimpressed: “It’s going to be a long time before we understand the implications of the 3,000-plus changes to planning laws.
“I guess by sometime in January there will be enough put together by the experts for us to make a response, which we will do to the consultation they have opened, I think though March.
“One of the things I can comment on now is that it is clear that our draft Local Plan currently under examination is still being judged under the old ‘framework’ so that is an important short-term comfort.
“I think that the proximity train station aspect looks like a new, but additional, Grey Belt power to over-ride Green Belt protections around these areas. They haven’t been clear about what ‘walking distance’ is so it is impossible to begin to map the impact in this district.
“However it does further undermine the credibility of the Government’s ‘top down target’ algorithm, as this has no accounting for the extent or otherwise of land that the gGovernment now deems suitable – there may be one authority with lots of Green Belt land close to railway stations, but with a low housing target from the algorithm close to one where there may be little or no such land, but the computer says ‘build more houses here’.
“Just one more contradiction for the Government to explain. I doubt they have even thought about it, sadly.”
