Report calls for planning shake-up to help rural communities

A suite of new planning policies are needed alongside better affordable housing provision if rural communities in England are to survive and flourish, an independent report commissioned by the Government has concluded.

That call has come in a major report to the prime minister following a review carried out by Matthew Taylor MP.

His assessment, just published, has recommended new planning policies designed to shift the growth of market towns from "bland housing estates" to create "new neighbourhood extensions with shops, community facilities, workplaces and open spaces".

Taylor, the Liberal Democrat MP for Truro and St Austell, has also called for a new "community-led affordable housing" initiative for smaller rural communities and more flexible planning rules to encourage village businesses.

His report has highlighted the need for all current Planning Policy Statements to be reviewed to simplify and end conflicting messages over the way sustainable development and economic, social and environmental factors should be balanced.

Taylor has highlighted the need to encourage the master-planning of the long-term growth of market towns. This would put a renewed emphasis on "new neighbourhoods" and "community extensions".

The report has also urged more development on brownfield land, the avoidance of "town cramming" and inappropriate loss of gardens. The review argued that landowners should be encouraged to offer land for affordable housing. It also suggested that ministers should trial in one of the national parks planning rules designed to control further conversion of full-time homes to second homes/holiday letting.

Taylor's report recommended the removal of planning rules and practices that encourage small businesses to move out of the countryside into urban areas as soon as they start to grow.

He argued that new planning policies were required which would accept that all forms of business can be appropriate in the countryside.

Taylor's report also proposed a more flexible approach to work-based extensions to homes to encourage home-based working, particularly start-up businesses.

Ministers have given a general welcome to the report but remain to be convinced that his proposals to limit second homes were either workable or would deliver the intended benefits.

Caroline Flint said: "Matthew Taylor has provided a comprehensive and authoritative report into the issues that our rural communities face, as well as a number of practical recommendations. He has been talking to people right across the country and his report will have a lasting impact on policy that will help their communities prosper. I thank him for that hard work.
 
"It's simply not fair that people in rural communities struggle to afford a place of their own. I am determined that we do everything we can to further help people in rural communities into home ownership, by for example helping landowners to establish community land trusts and by ensuring councils deliver the sustainable homes their communities need."

Read Matthew Taylor MP’s report.

Roger Milne

24 July 2008