Agenda item

Councillor Stan Pajak will move and Councillor Ann Richards will second:

“This Council wishes the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to note the following:

 Swindon Borough Council believes that local people, through their democratically elected local authorities, are the most suitable judges of what development is acceptable in an area and the suitable level of contributions that developers need to make:

 This Council opposes: 

• The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to have powers to override agreements between Councils and developers over the number of affordable housing units allocated to planning applications.

• The Secretary of State’s proposals for planning permission – currently required for extensions of more than three or four metres from the rear wall of any home – to only be needed for those reaching beyond 8m for detached homes and 6m for others  

• The Secretary of State's intention to override Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1990 which will allow developers to immediately appeal to the Planning Inspectorate over the allocation of affordable housing units in any scheme they maybe concerned with.  

• The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to take planning powers away from local authorities which he deems to be slow or of making poor quality planning decisions in determining applications.  

This Council notes that the current Coalition government did listen earlier in the year over concerns regarding the National Planning Policy Framework and revised its plans accordingly, so urges the Government to listen to the concerns being expressed by the cross-party LGA:

 This Council however welcomes other parts of the stimulus package including:

·         £300 million to provide 15,000 affordable homes across the country  

• An extension of the refurbishment programme to bring an extra 5,000 empty homes back into use  

• £280m for FirstBuy, the shared equity scheme to give a futher 16,500 first time buyers the chance to own their own homes  

• Up to £10bn of guarantees to housing associations, property management companies and developers which will be able to use the guarantees to secure lower borrowing costs. This will lead to hundreds of thousands of extra rental homes being built.

            Councillor Stan Pajak moved and Councillor Ann Richards seconded:

            “This Council wishes the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to note the following:

            Swindon Borough Council believes that local people, through their democratically elected local authorities, are the most suitable judges of what development is acceptable in an area and the suitable level of contributions that developers need to make:

             This Council opposes: 

·         The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to have powers to override agreements between Councils and developers over the number of affordable housing units allocated to planning applications.

·         The Secretary of State’s proposals for planning permission – currently required for extensions of more than three or four metres from the rear wall of any home – to only be needed for those reaching beyond 8m for detached homes and 6m for others  

·         The Secretary of State's intention to override Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1990 which will allow developers to immediately appeal to the Planning Inspectorate over the allocation of affordable housing units in any scheme they maybe concerned with.  

·         The Secretary of State's proposals for the Planning Inspectorate to take planning powers away from local authorities which he deems to be slow or of making poor quality planning decisions in determining applications.  

            This Council notes that the current Coalition government did listen earlier in the year over concerns regarding the National Planning Policy Framework and revised its plans accordingly, so urges the Government to listen to the concerns being expressed by the cross-party LGA:

            This Council however welcomes other parts of the stimulus package including:

·         £300 million to provide 15,000 affordable homes across the country  

·         An extension of the refurbishment programme to bring an extra 5,000 empty homes back into use  

·         £280m for FirstBuy, the shared equity scheme to give a futher 16,500 first time buyers the chance to own their own homes  

·         Up to £10bn of guarantees to housing associations, property management companies and developers which will be able to use the guarantees to secure lower borrowing costs. This will lead to hundreds of thousands of extra rental homes being built.

            With the agreement of the mover and seconder the Motion was amended to read:

            “In the spirit of the Coalition Government’s commitment to localism, this Council wishes the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to note that:

·         Swindon Borough Council believes that local people, through their democratically elected Local Authorities, are the most suitable judges of what development is acceptable in an area and the suitable level of contributions that developers need to make.

            This Council asks the Secretary of State to:

·         Consider actively how to make the Planning Inspectorate accountable to local residents, instead of all decisions being made by un-elected Inspectors;

·         Work with top performing Planning Authorities like Swindon to enable them to have greater freedom and abilities to make local decisions; and

·         Urges the Government to listen to the concerns being expressed by the cross-party Local Government Association.

            However, this Council welcomes other parts of the stimulus package including:

·         An extension of the refurbishment programme to bring 5,000 empty homes back into use;

·         £280million for FirstBuy, the shared equity scheme to give a further 16,500 first time buyers the chance to own their own homes;

·         Up to £10 Billion of guarantees to housing associations, property management companies and developers, which will be able to use the guarantees to secure lower borrowing costs.

            This Council requests that the Leader of the Council write to the Secretary of State to covey its concerns.

            The Amended Motion was put to the vote and declared carried.