East Sussex councillors express concerns at proposed changes to government planning policy

Last week, prime minister Rishi Sunak announced a U-turn on his proposed planning reforms, including the scrapping of house-building targets, after 60 Conservative MPs threatened to vote against his flagship Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.

The climbdown on house-building saw Michael Gove, the Levelling Up secretary, agree to change his Bill to make it clear that the annual house building target was ‘advisory’ rather than mandatory.

However, Lewes District Cabinet councillors described the news as offering ‘false hope’ for local residents.

Councillor Zoe Nicholson, deputy leader of Lewes District Council, said: “The comments by the Secretary of State for Levelling-Up creates a smokescreen to pacify all those who are as appalled by the government’s housing targets as we are in Lewes district.

“The announcement offers zero certainty for residents and instead spreads false hope that unwanted development now won’t happen.”

The now advisory government formula requires the construction of 783 properties every year across the Lewes District.

The algorithm was introduced in 2018 and immediately doubled the housing requirement for in the area from 348.

The district council says a recent consultation with residents generated an ‘unprecedented’ 42,000 comments about future development in the district and where it should be built.

Councillors say the current local plan timetable was approved in July 2020. However, new national policy within the government’s Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill and the need to assess each of the 42,000 comments received, means a revised programme is now required.

Councillor Stephen Gauntlett, Cabinet member for Planning, said: “We have had a lot of different sites submitted to consider for inclusion in the local plan and an unprecedented 42,000 responses from residents to the issues and options consultation.

"This level of response alone sends the clearest signal to the government that their planning system is not fit for purpose and requires root and branch changes.

“We have had comments on all the areas we asked for, comments ranging from climate change to what options to consider for new development.

“It is an extraordinary number of responses at this early stage of the plan making process, especially for a district like ours and the council’s small team of planning officers has the herculean task of carefully considering each one.”

Representatives of the councils from the districts of Rother, Wealden and Lewes have also written to Mrs Teresa Villiers MP and Mr Robert Seely MP, to alert them of their ‘grave concerns’ to Mr Gove’s changes to the Levelling Up Bill.

Mrs Villiers and Mr Seely had led a large group of MPs who have objected to the “standard method” and its effects on planning matters, which lead to the U-turn.

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In the letter, the councillors said Mr Gove’s intentions will provide no relief to the current excess overdevelopment.

The councillors stated they are concerned that the rebelling Tory MP’s withdrawal will likely leave East Sussex authorities with a revised system that contains ‘concerned, minimal changes from the detested standard method’.

Nikos Mikelis, chairman of Chiddingly Parish Council and writer of the letter, said: “Each of our districts of Lewes, Rother and Wealden have and continue to be subject to excess development; as being rural districts, this predominantly occurs on our green field land.

"The cause of this overdevelopment is the standard method, which purports to provide the ‘local housing need’. This is an appalling misuse of the English language as the natural rate of population growth in each of our three districts is negative, meaning that our real local housing need can never be represented by the standard method.

“We were very heartened with your proposed planning amendments to the Levelling Up Bill. We had hoped that your proposed changes would be accepted by government and we could look then forward to an immediate relief from the current excessive development.

“But on reading through the sketchy detail contained in Michael Gove's two letters to MPs dated 5 December and his WMS, we are now very concerned that his proposals fall considerably short of the measures you proposed in your new clauses."

Following the U-turn announcement, Lewes MP Maria Caulfield said on Facebook that she welcomed the ‘very good news’.

The Conservative MP told SussexWorld: “The Government abolished housing targets last week and have ripped up the standard method

"The one factor putting our green spaces at risk is not having a Local Plan. The Lib Dem's and Greens who run the council need to get on with this now as they have no more excuses left.”

Ms Caulfield angered Lewes District councillors in November when she claimed local green spaces were being targeted by developers because when district councillors refused the applications, they are merely overturned by the planning inspector.

Councillors called on the Tory MP to work with them to tackle the ‘increasingly toxic communications’ on local planning issues.

Councillor Zoe Nicholson added: “The government’s planning system has united people against it, not least because these ill-conceived housing numbers are causing great and unnecessary concern to many communities. They should rip up their method for working them out and listen to local people, not policy makers in Whitehall.

“All our residents can be assured that we will continue to painstakingly gather and analyse all the evidence and it is only by leaving no stone unturned that we will be able to demonstrate to the planning inspector, at the examination stage, the level of new housing that is sustainable for our district, not what the government dictates that we must build.”