Over the weekend the National Trust launched new research on how the planning system is working in England. Positive Planning – the NPPF and plan-led development’ finds that flaws in the Government’s planning rules are allowing developers to build housing in inappropriate locations, side-stepping sites allocated in Local Plans. This is how it was reported…
At the National Trust’s AGM on Saturday, our outgoing Chairman Sir Simon Jenkins – as he bids farewell to members – will give his views on the current state of the planning system. His thoughts have also been reported this week in the Telegraph, Guardian, and Daily Express. Sir Simon comments on the positions of different political…
Two years after the National Planning Policy Framework was implemented the Communities and Local Government Committee in Parliament is having a look at it to see how it’s working on the ground. The National Trust fed their views into the creation of the NPPF and we’ve been giving feedback to the committee as part of…
In 2011 the government passed the Localism Act. The Act enables communities to create Neighbourhood Plans through which they can shape the places in which they live. Three years on, we’ve taken a look at the first 20 Plans to see what’s in them. The Plans play a dual role, not only allowing neighbourhoods to…
Today Sir Michael Lyons published the findings of a major review of Housing and Planning policy commissioned nine months ago by the Labour leader Ed Miliband. Housing has become one of the top political issues in recent years, and especially since house building rates fell following the recession and have so far failed to recover.…
We welcome that Sir Michael Lyons’ review does not propose a further shake up of national planning policies, and recognises that many of the problems with undersupply of housing lie with the market rather than failures of the planning system. We agree that the nation needs more homes, and will look carefully at proposals…
It is sometimes forgotten that the National Trust’s founders cared deeply about access to green space for people in towns and cities. Octavia Hill wrote: “In pleading for the inhabitants of our towns we are asking for no aristocratic luxury or exceptional superfluity, but for the restoration of some faint reflex of what our modern…
In this series of blog posts Ellie Dewdney will be keeping you up to date with current issues that could affect Britain’s most special places and what the National Trust are doing to preserve these national treasures. For those of you out there who haven’t come across it the National Planning Policy Framework (or the…
Sam Weaver is a Media and Communications intern at the National Trust. Over the next few months he will be following the politics of preserving our heritage. Check out last weeks post here It is a common misconception that listed buildings or properties with a historic nature can be a barrier to development. In fact, property…
A report released today by the National Children’s Bureau reveals an ugly truth. The number of children in the UK living in poverty is on the rise. In 1971, 2 million children were deemed to be living ‘in poverty’. Today it’s 3 million. The report, ‘Greater Expectations’, isn’t just focussed on material poverty – not…
