Leading planners and developers have accused the DTI and DETR of conflicting policies after the publication of the Competitiveness White Paper emphasising building business clusters on green belt land, writes Anna Minton.
Launching the white paper, Trade and Industry secretary Peter Mandelson said that a new government minister will be appointed to help co-ordinate action where clusters are deemed to be of national significance.
He added that the DTI would be examining the planning system jointly with DETR to ensure it encourages enterprise and promotes the needs of clusters.
But planners said that encouraging industrial development on green belt land ran contrary to the DETR thrust to develop brownfield sites and regenerate towns and cities.
Denton Hall planning partner Stephen Ashworth said: “This is one of the starkest examples of interdepartmental conflict we’ve seen yet. It’s an extension of the McKinsey report battle between the DTI and the DETR.”
Royal Town Planning Institute planning policy chair Nick Davis said: “There is a conflict here with the government agenda to promote sustainability and develop brownfield sites. This white paper is talking about American style development of large amounts of green belt land at very low density, which workers will have to reach by car.
“If Mr Mandelson and the Regional Development Agencies – which will be his organs of economic development – think they can build in areas of outstanding natural beauty there will be a potential backlash.”
Davis added that most hi-tech companies would wish to locate clusters – bringing the inevitable infrastructure and housing – in the south-east and the south-west, where resistance to housing development is strongest.
MEPC UK director Gavin Davidson praised Mandelson for exposing the debate, but said it was far from resolved.
He believes the appeal decision to expand the Human Genome Project at Hinxton Hall near Cambridge, which is expected in March, will reflect the way government policy will develop.
“This project is completely out-of-town and completely car-driven. It’s diametrically opposite to everything the planning system is trying to do. If they give the green light it means the cluster argument has the ascendancy. If they lose it will show the whole issue of the car is paramount,” he said.
PLS News 17/12/98
