Latest news with #planning system
The Guardian
03-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
It's not just about building houses – communities need infrastructure to grow
There is a very real danger that, in its bid to reform the planning system and build 1.5m homes across England at pace, the government will neglect the basic requirements of livable communities ('No shops, no schools': homes in England built without basic amenities, 27 July). As your article makes clear, already 'thousands of homes across England are being built without urgently needed community infrastructure'. The planning system cannot allow such fundamental aspects of quality, sustainable placemaking to be neglected. It would do well to recognise the solution offered by a landscape-led approach to development. Landscape is everywhere – not just in protected countryside, but in every high street and cul-de-sac. It is the setting in which we all live, study, work and play. By thinking landscape first and engaging landscape architects early, planners and developers can design-in essential community infrastructure from the outset, creating resilient places that deliver what people need. So, let's build quality as well as quantity by prioritising GöhlerPresident, Landscape Institute One of the problems with the way we build homes in England is that local people have no role beyond complaining and objecting. In one case in your article, the community offered to finish off and run a community centre if the developer would just build the shell. But the idea that communities could roll up their sleeves and build, own, run these things just isn't considered by our housing and planning systems. The developer considered and rejected the idea; the community had no say. In a small but growing number of places this opposite is happening. Communities are gaining a seat at the table in the design and build-out of new homes, and taking ownership of shops, playgrounds, open space, community centres and affordable homes. Developers have to work with, and negotiate with, local people over what is built. This little bit of leverage and agency, achieved through a community land trust, builds better places with a stronger sense of community. The Labour government has talked a lot about supporting communities. The prime minister recently spoke of people tired of being excluded from decisions about their own lives. Here's your chance, Sir Keir, to include them in decisions about housing by wiring community agency and ownership into the planning ChanceChief executive, Community Land Trust Network
BBC News
28-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Somerset to take 'critical actions' to reduce planning backlog
Council officers have been forced to take "critical actions" to try and speed up their planning Council said the growing backlog of applications meant the workload of its staff remains the 28 July, the council will put into place a number of measures for three months, including reducing staff attendance at meetings, asking the public not to chase applications and only accepting limited Conservative opposition group at the council said the planning system had been "neglected" since the creation of the unitary authority in 2023. There are around 1,600 outstanding cases to clear according to the council, with some waiting months to get a decision on their council blames recruitment difficulties and IT issues on the long wait leader of the opposition Conservative group on Somerset Council, Councillor Diogo Rodrigues, said the system is at "breaking point", calling the new measures an "emergency shut down".He claimed applications which have been in the system for a long time will not be prioritised, in favour of new ones which can be progressed quickly."We're concerned as democratically-elected councillors that we're being pushed back and decisions are being made by officers, day in, day out, and we're not given the opportunity to have our say," he Democrat Councillor Mike Rigby, who is the portfolio holder for planning at the council, called comments by Mr Rodrigues "silly", adding planning applications will be handled in the usual said: "We need to focus on the work itself, rather than providing constant updates."I fully understand why applicants want to know where their application is but our officers are spending far too much time providing those updates rather than actually making decisions."
