Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Secretary

Eland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU

Date: 16^th May 2013

Dear Eric,

I am writing on behalf of a number of constituents who care passionately about the protection of our beautiful Sussex countryside and are concerned about a loophole in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

My constituents are worried that, where local authorities do not have a plan in place, Councils may be forced to allow socially and environmentally damaging projects to go ahead and community input would be seriously undermined. The situation in Sussex is illustrative; only Wealden District Council has had its local plan adopted since the NPPF was published, meaning that a lot of our county is potentially under threat.

I would therefore urge you to heed the concerns of CPRE and others by taking the following measures to prevent damaging developments in the wrong places, whilst still allowing the construction of affordable housing:  

• Provision of more support for the development of local plans and the extension of the NPPF transition to 18 months.
• Development of more detailed planning guidance to address areas of confusion and empower local communities to prioritise the development of brownfield sites and ensure sufficient social and affordable housing is built.  As part of this, it is essential that locally derived housing figures are produced in consultation with local people. The Planning Inspectorate currently appears to be using outdated South East Plan figures and sub national statistics that are not accurate or helpful at district level. It is also important that infrastructure capacity and need assessments should be undertaken in parallel with the Strategic Housing Market Assessments and with community support  and not be subject to speculative housing developments.
• Address the perception held by local communities across Sussex and elsewhere that their views are being ignored, by restating your commitment to neighbourhood and community led planning and ensuring this is at the centre of the planning process. This means that Ministers and Inspectors should stop allowing planning appeals for large housing developments in the countryside, over the heads of local communities.

Additionally, as part of your reply, I would be grateful if you could include your Department’s most up to date figures on how the NPPF is performing, in particular the total number of resulting developments that have been on greenfield land, and the proportion of total housing units delivered that was affordable.

Thank you for your attention to these matters and I look forward to hearing what action you will be taking to address my constituents’ concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP, Brighton Pavilion

For the reply from the Minister please click here.