Thanks to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – dubbed the Developers Charter – local authorities are stuck between a rock and a hard place, especially trying to maintaining the careful balance between development to meet local need and protecting precious green spaces. I objected to the NPPF when it was first published and warned that, even when some improvements were secured, it posed a serious threat to our countryside.

I wrote to the relevant Secretary of State, Eric Pickles in May of last year to set out my objections. I called for local authorities to be allowed to set local housing targets, including for council and social housing, and for local people to have a full say in local development plans. You can read the correspondence here.

I also stood up in Parliament to speak out about the NPPF, tabled parliamentary questions and voted against the watering down of planning protections. I was especially critical of Government claims that giving developers new powers was the best way to meet the crisis caused by a housing shortfall. We certainly need to increase the supply of housing, particularly affordable housing - so many families locally are on housing waiting lists, in poor quality housing or are struggling to afford to rent or to buy. But tearing up the rules that protect our green spaces is not the answer. (For more about my alternative solutions please click here).

Here in Brighton and Hove the city faces an especially difficult challenge identifying enough sites for housing development – our geographical location means we are constrained on one side by the sea, and by the national park on the other. Despite that, 1119 new homes have been completed since 2011 and a further 2338 are underway.

The City Plan identifies even more sites for potential development, including a total of 11,300 homes. Crucially it does so whilst also protecting what’s called the urban fringe – the green areas at the edge of our city.

But the Government’s Planning Inspectorate has ruled that development takes precedence over our countryside. It’s demanding that even more sites have to be earmarked and this puts the city’s allotments, the national park, meadows, pastures, potential nature reserves and existing protected areas in the frame for development.  The Inspectorate has told the Council to agree a revised City Plan on this basis and threatened that developers will win the right to a free for all land grab if there’s no green light for concreting over our green spaces. It’s a Catch 22 situation.

But I want residents to have a proper say and I want to find another way forward. I don’t think we should be boxed in by what the Government tells us needs to be in our City Plan – it’s our city and I think you should be consulted fully.  

That’s why I have backed calls by Friends of the Earth in Brighton and Hove for widespread consultation about what actually goes in the revised City Plan – not just consultation on the options the Government likes.  And I have called on the council to do all it can to help protect our green spaces too.

This Friday is decision time and I hope you will join me in the fight to Save Our Urban Fringe.