My briefing today from the LGIU spotlights again how some Conservative MPs prepare to rebel over planning reform.
Almost 100 Conservative MPs are understood to be prepared to rebel over the Government’s proposed overhaul of planning legislation – with a source telling the Times that rebels are rejecting potential concessions raised by ministers as “window dressing”.
The Labour Party has already set out its opposition to what it calls a “developers’ charter”, which will remove the right for residents to object to individual planning applications, and will require councils to nominate “growth sites” on which development will be automatically approved.
Damian Green, de facto deputy prime minister under Theresa May, says a “centrally imposed zonal system would be a really unconservative policy in this hugely sensitive area”, while Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen says that it “seems the system means the more you have built, the more you have got to build in the future”. “I’m quite happy to see more houses built”, he said, “we are the party of homeowners, but every area has to do its fair share.”
Councillor Phil Bateman said ” The more you see and read, the clearer it is that it is Conservative Government Housing Policy, that is the threat to the development of the Green Belt. A huge threat is that local democracy is under attack as local peoples right to object are under consideration to be wiped away. Even Conservative Tory MP’s are beginning to rebel over the Governments Housing Policy.”
