The coalition calls for further action urged to guarantee strategic collaboration on housing across the different tiers of local government.

The letter to Housing Secretary, Sajid Javid was signed by CIHT; the County Councils Network; the Home Builders Federation; the Town and Country Planning Association; ADEPT; and the Association of County Chief Executives.

 

The call came in response to the Government’s Housing White Paper, which went out to consultation in February. It proposes a draft ‘Statement of Common Ground’ (SoCG) that would encourage county councils (responsible for key infrastructure) and district councils (responsible for housing and planning) to work more closely together on new developments.

 

However the measure has been described as a ‘toothless instrument’ by the coalition which said in a letter to Housing Secretary Sajid Javid that there is not a strong enough requirement for councils to formally collaborate.

 

It argues that the SoCG must include a more prominent and formalised role for county councils to ensure infrastructure needs are better matched with housing development.

 

“Promoting the alignment of planning for housing and infrastructure at higher spatial levels will assist in meeting the economic challenges that county areas face,” the letter reads.

 

Strengthening the SoCG to require collaborative working over whole counties could help to identify necessary infrastructure at the earliest opportunity and ensure that homes are built in the right places, the coalition adds. This would allow strategies to be put in place to collect developer contributions and encourage investment for infrastructure in tandem with new development.

 

Commenting, CIHT’s chief executive Sue Percy said: “The planning regime must acknowledge the important role the UK transport system plays in economic and social development. Without an integration of planning and transport we run the risk of producing isolated and unconnected communities that exist in an economic vacuum.”

 

She added: “Planning for housing, business and sustainable communities requires clearer, more specific advice and guidance on the integration of transport.”

 

Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) president Simon Neilson said: “We ask Government to review the proposed Statement of Common Ground to ensure that joint working and shared decision making are a formalised requirement of the planning process for every housing development.”

 

♦ Greater efforts to maximise the use of brownfield land and deliver ‘denser’ housing developments are urged in a new overhaul of the National Planning Policy Framework launched by the Prime Minister this week.

 

The reforms will give authorities more freedom to make the most of redundant brownfield land and help to ensure strong protection of the green belt. A new standardised approach to assessing housing need will also be introduced, with new measures to make the system of developer contributions ‘clearer, simpler and more robust’.

 

In response to the plans, National Infrastructure Commission chair Sir John Armitt emphasised the need to learn from the mistakes of the past and create sustainable communities, rather than “just build more houses”.

 

“Well designed infrastructure, and particularly local transport,” he said, “can play a crucial role in addressing some of the most serious constraints on housing and ensuring that new houses become homes – built in the right place and supporting the long term needs of local people and businesses”.