The Conservatives have vowed to block changes to the planning system, saying that the Government’s proposed reforms are “bad for business, bad for democracy and bad for the environment”.
The Conservatives are fiercely opposed to plans to strip county councils of their planning powers. They have also come out against plans to introduce planning tariffs and to limit communities’ rights.
Theresa May, Shadow DTLR secretary, said: “It is now clear that there is overwhelming opposition to Stephen Byers’ ill thought-out planning proposals. Local communities will be stripped of their voice on local planning decisions.
“Elected county councillors will lose their say. Ninety per cent of all planning decisions will be decided by unelected officers, and major infrastructure projects will be decided centrally.
“The decisions will be taken by ministers, and then could be whipped through Westminster Committee with little more than an hour’s debate in Parliament.”
If the proposals go through, the Tories argue, local residents will have no way of stopping developments such as Dibden Bay’s “super-port”, the rumoured fifth airport for London near Cliffe in Kent, and nine nuclear power stations proposed by British Energy and BNFL. It is thought that both developments will have a damaging effect on local conservation areas.
The Conservatives said they were also looking out for the interests of business.
May said: “Businesses are being sold a pup – the changes will add more tiers of bureaucracy than they take away, as well as imposing a new stealth tax on development.”
The party is understood to have responded to growing pressure from the business lobby.
Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith is thought to be in agreement with a letter sent to him by business lobby group London First.
The letter said: “The proposals in the Green Paper will increase risk and uncertainty and reduce development and regeneration. There will be too many levels of plans with too much consultation resulting in no action.
“The proposals for planning obligations represent a tax on development and will result in landowners not releasing sites.”
May is also thought to have taken on board complaints made by the British Retail Consortium, which referred to the proposed system of tariffs and site-specific negotiated agreements as “little more than a ‘double whammy’ of additional taxation.”
EGi News 18/03/02
