Green party

Draft National Planning Framework - Go back to the drawing board, says Green Party

 

Draft National Planning Framework - Go back to the drawing board, says Green Party

 

The Green Party has raised serious concerns about the controversial Government planning policy. In essence the Green Party believe that, in principle and in approach, the framework is a thinly-veiled gift to developers, which paves the way for damaging developments while professing to boost "sustainability".

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas points out that "the third sentence of the draft NPPF bluntly states that "Development means growth." Soon after, the document asserts with no argument or evidence that "without growth, a sustainable future cannot be achieved." Such circularity means that all development becomes sustainable, and as the presumption makes clear, all so called sustainable development must be approved. "

Developers currently enjoy huge advantage during the planning process, and the Government has entirely failed to improve this condition in the framework, in fact horrifyingly quite the opposite.  The local communities and local councils will have less, not more, control over what gets built in their area under the provisions of the framework. 

The Green Party has enormous concerns regarding the power and influence of powerful lobbyists for the building industry who are routinely putting profit before people. David Cameron himself described lobbying as "the next big scandal waiting to happen" in a speech last year and yet is allowing developers free rein in the disastrous NPPF.

The NPPF in its current format is at odds with the idea of sustainable development and as such The Green Party cannot support it.