Clark rejects claims of ‘cosying’ to developers

Author: Mark Conrad, The MJ - Sep 14, 2011

Planning minister Greg Clark has dismissed suggestions ministers enjoy a cosy relationship with the property industry following allegations he urged developers to lobby Number 10 with support for his decentralised reforms.
In an exclusive interview with The MJ, Mr Clark said his pre-draft consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was comprehensive, had been designed to glean the opinions of all interested parties and had received significant support from local government.

Mr Clark is leading government plans to kick-start development through planning by simplifying the system and introducing a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’. As part of the draft NPPF, published last month and currently out to consultation, he will hand sovereignty over local development plans to councils.

Mr Clark’s draft aims to reduce current planning rules from 1,300 pages to just 52 pages. But in the past week, the minister has faced criticism that his Conservative Party has received significant funds – purportedly £3.3m over three years – from developers backing his reforms, and claims from the National Trust (NT) that reforms could lead to the loss of scarce green-belt land.

A leaked email sent by the British Property Federation lobby following meetings with Mr Clark also suggested minister’s ambitions ‘align’ with those of developers, while critics suggested an influential advisory group on planning reform was dominated by building industry experts.

Mr Clark said the purpose of his reforms had been ‘lost’ in recent debates, and that the real ambition was to empower councils through the sovereignty of local development plans so that they could help build the homes the country needs.

A key aim, Mr Clark said, was that councils could be ‘confident that they are not going to be dictated to from above’. Following the allegations by the NT, he also said that ‘people are reading more into the “presumption” than is actually there’.

NT director-general, Dame Fiona Reynolds, has claimed the proposals could ‘lead to unchecked and damaging development in the undesignated countryside on a scale not seen since the 1930s’.

‘What the presumption…does is state what should happen if there isn’t an up-to-date local plan. But it isn’t designed as, and it never will be, a loophole to mean that any and all development is possible,’ Mr Clark told The MJ.

‘If a proposal doesn’t prevent any problems, it should be approved promptly. But if it does present problems then it needs to be rigorously assessed and should only proceed if its impact on the locality is negative.’

Shadow planning minister Jack Dromey this week suggested this still meant Labour’s popular policy of prioritising brownfield developments would be scrapped.

‘On the contrary – what we say in the draft is that sites of the lowest environmental value should be used first,’ Mr Clark claimed. ‘It’s expressed in that way because there are some sites within towns and cities that may once have been used for industrial use that have become valued green space.’

Turning his attention to NT allegations that ‘developers are in the minister’s pocket’, Mr Clark defended his four-strong NPPF advisory group, pointing out that only one member was a house-builder. National newspapers this week noted that three of the appointments – including Peter Andrew, director of land and planning for house-builder Taylor Wimpey, and Quod boss John Rhodes, a planning consultant – had significant links to the property industry.

But while a third advisor, Cllr Gary Porter, is linked to a social house-building firm set up by his local authority, South Holland DC, he has also been the Local Government Association’s lead on planning and environmental issues and led the District Councils Network.

The fourth member of the advisory team was from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

‘When you’re talking about planning reforms you speak to everyone across the sector. I appointed a practitioners advisory group, and I made sure it had the highest representation from local councillors,’ Mr Clark said.

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