Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Yorkshire and Humber regional strategy to be abolished in February

30 Jan 2013, 4:40 pm

An Order to formally revoke the Yorkshire and the Humber Plan has been laid before Parliament and will come into force on 22 February, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has announced.

The York green belt policies that are part of the regional strategy will be retained as the City of York does not currently have a Local Plan in place with defined green belt boundaries.

The Order was laid before Parliament following the publication of a strategic environmental assessment (139-page / 828KB PDF) which provides an assessment of the environmental effects of the revocation of the Yorkshire and Humber Plan.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said that the environmental assessment had identified adverse impacts that would arise from revocation of the regional strategy policies for the York green belt. Retention of the York green belt policies had been put forward as a "reasonable alternative".

The DCLG said that the abolition of this regional strategy reinforces the "importance of the Local Plan, produced with the involvement of local communities, as the keystone of the planning system". It said that this is this approach that will help deliver the "homes, jobs and infrastructure we need".

“The flawed top-down targets of regional planning built nothing but resentment," said Pickles. “By giving people the ability to shape the places in which they live, development happens by consensus not conflict."

“The abolition of this regional strategy is another important step in devolving power from unelected quangos back to communities and elected councils across both Yorkshire and Humber,” he said.

The Yorkshire and Humber Plan will be the second regional spatial strategy to be abolished following the revocation of the East of England Plan earlier this month.