Planning reform is unacceptable, confidential Lib Dem report says

The draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) proposes to condense the current 1, 300 pages of planning guidance down to 52 pages. It is aimed at stimulating growth and cutting red tape. 

The document also proposes a controversial "presumption in favour of sustainable development", which states the default answer is "yes" to development where a core strategy is "absent, silent or indeterminate".

The report, written by Annette Brooke, co-chairman of the Liberal Democract Parliamentary Committee on Communities and Local Government, criticised the Government's statement for putting the economy before the environment, according to a report in the Independent.

The report highlights the Government's failure to sufficiently define "sustainable development" and claims that there is an overlap with economic growth that needs to be ironed out.

"There is insufficient conformity throughout the document as to what sustainable development means. Throughout the document...the language of sustainable development morphs into a references to the importance of ‘sustainable economic growth'," Brooke said in the report.

"The language in the document needs to be tightened up throughout to indicate that whilst economic growth is important it does not necessarily equate to sustainable development," said Brooke.

The Liberal Democrats urged the Government to include a presumption against "inappropriate development" on green belt land and impose a "brownfield first" policy of using disused industrial sites before undeveloped land, the report said.

It also claimed that the Government should use incentives to help developers restart stalled developments that already have planning permission.

Conservation body the National Trust (NT) is seeking an urgent meeting with the Government to discuss the progression of the planning policy. The NT has campaigned to remove the "presumption in favour of sustainable development" since it was first proposed.

A ten week consultation on the draft NPPF was carried out. It closed in October and the Government is now debating the proposed new policy. A consultation containing the revised proposals is expected at the beginning of 2012.