Shelly Dennison offers her reflections on the new government’s planning reforms and their environmental impact:
Week one of a new government and planning reform has been making headlines. The incoming Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has indicated that planning rules will be overhauled and national infrastructure projects speeded up. There will be new housebuilding targets and a review of Green Belt boundaries.
At the heart of the planning system are fundamental questions about how we live and the values that shape decision making.
A (very) quick guide to the planning system
National planning policy is set out in the National Planning and Policy Framework (NPPF). There are then two levels of local planning in England. Local Plans are a statutory requirement and are prepared by local planning authorities, Neighbourhood Plans are voluntary and are prepared by local communities. Local Plans have an economic role (business and infrastructure), a social role (building strong communities) and an environmental role (protection of landscapes, wildlife, heritage and sustainability). Neighbourhood Plans should conform generally with the Local Plan and exist to help communities develop a shared vision for their neighbourhoods. They cannot prevent the scale of development deemed necessary in the Local Plan but can have input into areas like the protection and creation of nature reserves and green spaces, renewable energy projects, where houses are built and levels of need for affordable housing.
Some definitions
Green Belt is a defined area of countryside around a town or city which is protected from ‘inappropriate’ forms of development, as defined in government planning policy on Green Belts. Controls over new development, especially housing, are tighter than for most of the countryside. There are 14 Green Belts throughout the country, covering about 13% of England. CPRE, the countryside charity, refers to the Green Belt as ‘the countryside next door for 30 million people’. The trees, hedgerows and fields act as a carbon sink, can help reduce flooding and reduce the ‘heat island’ effect of towns and cities.
The five purposes of the Green Belt are defined as:
- Checking unrestricted sprawl of urban areas
- Preventing neighbouring towns from merging with each other
- Assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment
- Preserving the setting and special character of historic towns
- Assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land
Crucially, despite public perception, quality or appearance of land is not currently a factor when deciding whether to designate it as a Green Belt. A lot of countryside described by local people as Green Belt is not actually officially designated as such. However, this undesignated countryside often provides many of the same benefits for people and wildlife associated with Green Belt land. Undeveloped areas of land outside of Green Belt designation are often referred to as greenfield.
Brownfield usually refers to previously developed urban land. This might have been used for housing, industry, retail or other purposes. The government has committed to a brownfield first approach.
Grey Belt has as yet no formally agreed definition. It seems to be used to mean land in the Green Belt that has “poor quality and ugly areas” such as disused car parks or wasteland. A formal definition that can be applied fairly would need to be written into the new NPPF. The indication appears to be that a greater proportion of any housing approved for these sites would need to be affordable than that in other developments.
Affordable housing is defined as houses available to rent or buy at up to 80% of the market value. In other words, in many areas of the country affordable housing may not actually be affordable. Social rent, on the other hand, takes into account relative local income levels. Readers who would like to dig into housing and theology will find ‘Coming Home. A Theology of Housing’ edited by Malcolm Brown and Graham Tomlin (Church House Publishing, 2020) a helpful read. A Grove pamphlet ‘Why the Church Should Care About Housing’ (2021) by Tomlin and Stephen Backhouse provides a shorter introduction to the same material.
Biodiversity
Access to biodiversity rich green space (including gardens) could be viewed as a social justice issue, to be placed alongside the need for affordable homes, something that was exposed during Covid lockdowns. Research commissioned by the National Trust and partners showed that factors including poverty and race were tied into inequality of access. They called for interventions including greening urban neighbourhoods, upgrading poor quality parks and creating large parks and forests on urban fringes. Key requests included more space for wildlife, more walking and cycle routes, and extra community facilities.
Often places valued by communities might be overlooked as uninteresting or be deemed to be brownfield sites ripe for development, and be home to higher levels of biodiversity than sites perceived to be greenfield and in need of protection. Stephen Moss highlights this in his book, ‘The Accidental Countryside’, where he discusses the hidden corners where nature can thrive. He also offers some examples of developers working to enhance the biodiversity on their sites through wildlife corridors, fruit tree planting, the use of swift and bat bricks, and integrating new constructed wetlands – all of which allow people to live closer to nature. These kind of ambitions for building in ways to improve both biodiversity and living standards are ideas that Christians could support when local plans are being developed.
Climate
The removal of the effective block on onshore wind farms made the news but other steps could also be taken through the planning system to ensure that the new housing stock is built with sustainability in mind. Rooftop solar, heat pumps and incorporating Passivhaus standards on energy efficiency could also be explored. Some of these will need investment in developing the infrastructure and capacity of the National Grid.
A Christian voice
Engagement with the planning system presents a practical way for Christians to speak on biodiversity and climate issues from a faith based perspective. It is a place where environmental and social issues meet and therefore needs a holistic approach. The church is well placed to speak across these different issues, reflecting our hope in a renewed and restored creation. This is likely to be best expressed at local level, in Neighbourhood and Local Plans, where churches have the benefit of deep roots in their communities and the flexibility to listen, advocate or reconcile as required.
As Rowan Williams writes in ‘Holy Living. The Christian Tradition for Today’, the challenge is “how to get theology on to the agenda of planning, locally and nationally (though without necessarily letting on that it is theology)”.
Shelly Dennison is a JRI Director and Digital Engagement Officer at CPRE Bedfordshire, which is part of the CPRE, the countryside charity’s network. All opinions in this post are personal and are not intended to represent the views of CPRE.