Maria Caulfield, Member of Parliament for Lewes, has welcomed the publication of the updated National Planning Policy Framework by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove.
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the governments planning policies for England and how these should be applied by local planning authorities.
The revised framework updates a number of planning policies, the most important to the local area include changes to the housing targets and local plans.
Local planning authorities use a system called the Standard Method to calculate housing need in the area. There has been concern that this produces a number that is too high for areas such as Lewes and Wealden. The government have responded to this concern by making clear in the framework that the number produced by the Standard Method is a starting point and is advisory, meaning that mandatory housing targets have been abolished.
The government also want to ensure that local authorities have up-to-date local plans and will punish authorities who drag their feet and don’t produce them on time.
Lewes District Council has not had an up-to-date local plan since 2021, and this has caused a raft of speculative development in the area, some of which have been approved which may not have been if a local plan had been in place.
Maria Caulfield MP said:
“I welcome that the government now have clear guidance around local housing targets and local plans, the Lib Dem/Green coalition council let the last local plan go out of date and this has had a huge impact on the local area. I’m glad that they will now need to produce an updated local plan or face action from the Secretary of State.”
“We know that a Labour government would reverse these changes and re-introduce top-down housing targets, with Labour MP’s in Sussex saying that would like to build new towns on our precious green spaces.”