Brighton and Hove will pay a high price for government planning reforms

The government’s latest announcement on planning reform is a “developer’s charter”.

It will see communities sidelined in decisions and denied vital funding for building schools, clinics and community infrastructure.

And it’s another nail in the coffin of local councils’ ability for local democratic decision-making.

These proposals could quite easily blight communities with another new wave of slum housing on top of the “permitted development rights” system already in place.

Housing built outside the planning system will undoubtedly put profit before people.

The planning process has not delayed development in this city – there are literally hundreds of unbuilt permissions in the system which are currently being “land banked” by developers.

And abolishing “section 106” and possibly the “community infrastructure levy” (CIL) too will have a negative impact on our ability to provide community infrastructure so desperately needed in Brighton and Hove.

We only recently introduced CIL. Another change will be really inefficient and place an additional burden on an already overstretched service as well as create uncertainty.

This government needs to introduce land value reforms as well as provide councils with the funds to build the high-quality and genuinely affordable environmentally sustainable housing that our city so desperately needs.

Councillor Carmen Appich speaks for the Labour opposition on planning policy on Brighton and Hove City Council.