Lawyers cast doubt on legality of eco-town initiative
Local authorities have urged ministers to begin a new dialogue about environmentally friendly housing development after leading planning lawyers argued that the Government's eco-town programme could be open to serious legal challenge.
John Steel QC and James Strachan were asked by the Local Government Association (LGA) to examine the legal issues surrounding the initiative. They concluded that the Government’s approach could be construed as illegal – a claim strongly rejected by the administration.
In a joint Opinion just published, the lawyers argued there were "sound grounds" for seeking a judicial review of the way the Government is promoting its eco-town programme via a promised Planning Policy Statement (PPS).
The lawyers have claimed that the use of a new PPS "is contrary to the basic principle – expressed through the planning legislation – of the plan-led system of development control".
The Joint Opinion went on to say that "this conflict is all the more acute because of the concept of providing housing in new settlements in an environmentally sustainable way, something which is already recognised in PPS3 on housing".
The lawyers added: "There therefore does not appear to be any compelling justification or rationale for seeking to promote eco-towns outside the existing statutory plan-led system, other than the Government’s wish to avoid the system due to the need for proper scrutiny, which takes time."
The plan to rely on a new PPS policy "appears to be designed to circumvent the normal plan-led process" and is therefore "clearly contrary to the legislative intention of development control through a plan-led system", argued the lawyers.
The Opinion also suggested that the government's policy on eco-towns could constitute "a plan or a programme" which needed a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) under European Union regulations.
The lawyers concluded that "the proposed eco-town PPS is likely to be unlawful, as on all the information before us we conclude that it will be promoting a policy and process which would be inherently flawed".
Sir Simon Milton, outgoing chairman of the LGA, said: "This expert legal advice supports our arguments that the approach the government is adopting is deeply flawed... Eco-towns must be delivered without bypassing the planning processes and ensure that new developments have good transport connections alongside the schools, health and leisure facilities which are needed to create places without where people would want to live."
A Community and Local Government spokesperson said: "We absolutely disagree with the LGA's claims and believe this legal advice can only have been obtained on the basis of a misrepresentation of our policy.
"We have made it absolutely clear throughout that eco-towns will be different and will have higher environmental standards than a normal development and the applications will also have to be considered through the normal planning process."
Meanwhile, in a related but separate development, eco-town promoter UK Coal has scaled back the size of its short-listed proposal for Rossington, South Yorkshire. Originally some 15,000 homes were proposed; now the strategy is for 5,000 on 300 acres of brownfield land and the provision of 125 acres of open space.
Read the lawyers' Joint Opinion.
- Housing Minister Caroline Flint today set out the Government’s latest proposals for Green standards for new housing as she unveiled a progress report on eco-towns.She said: "These would be the toughest standards ever set out for new development, and would demonstrate that there will be no compromise on quality when it comes to eco-towns."We need to build more homes in this country, but given that housing contributes 27% of our carbon emissions we must also take this opportunity to trial new ways of tackling climate change. In both cases, doing nothing is not an option."
Roger Milne and Planning Portal
24 July 2008
Advertisement:
© Crown Copyright 2008