New National Planning Policy Framework - Our Response

In response to the press release issued today on changes to the NPPF from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Rights Community Action’s directer, Naomi Luhde-Thompson, said

“Taking away the ability of local government to say no to bad development through new planning rules is not devolution, it is the opposite - centralisation to Westminster. 

Nor is it good for people and their neighbourhoods. What this Government is calling “excessive gold plating” we are calling “minimum standards for a country facing a cost of living crisis and a climate emergency”. This would be common sense.

Our ‘Women’s Manifesto for Just Neighbourhoods’ is a plea to restore our planning system so that it actually works for people living with the outcomes of planning decisions every day.

Women and children are among those worst affected by the problems of a deregulated planning system - not enough social rent homes available, rising flood and heatwave risks, little access to green space, or spaces to play and grow food, increasing energy costs, polluted air and unsafe car dominated streets.

We want to see new planning rules that protect our voice in decisions, ensure homes are decent and healthy, ensure that there is access to local food, that the air is clean to breathe and our streets are truly green and bio-diverse, that there is space and provision for young people, and that there is sanctuary for our most vulnerable and marginalised.”