ADEPT's view on Planning for the Future
Nigel Riglar, President of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) said: “Build, build, build will become bland, bland, bland – is that really in the local or national interest?
“What local authorities do day in day out is make decisions, including planning ones, that balance the competing needs of their communities, economies and environment – to get the best outcome they can in terms of shaping the places that their people need to live in. Removing planning is cutting the heart out of local authorities place leadership role and of the ability of communities to have a real say in local developments.
“Like it or not local leadership on planning is in the national interest. Great places are not delivered remotely from Westminster. Great places need local place leaders to work with their communities.
“The carbon neutral by 2050 proposal is a ‘retrofit timebomb’. Houses built now are not being built to meet that target, so it will be householders in our local places footing the bill to decarbonise their homes. My fear is housebuilders won’t start building carbon neutral homes until January 1 2051 – can we really afford to wait that long?
“Well designed and inter-connected green infrastructure is critical if nature is to recover and the country is to adapt to the already baked in impacts of climate change. Piecemeal designations of land won’t do the trick – where is the green, green, green ambition of Government?”