Planning reform will not boost growth or employment

Reforms to decades-old planning rules are unlikely to have any positive effect on growth or employment in the short run, a report warns.

Under the new regulations, every council is required to publish details of what land is available for development .

The study into the costs and benefits of the planning system suggests the reforms will have "little or no effect on growth and could even undermine public wellbeing".

The report, Inexpensive Progress?, claims to debunk claims from George Osborne, the Chancellor, that the reforms are needed to boost the economy. It was commissioned by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the National Trust and the RSPB, which have criticised the reforms.

The new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) includes a presumption in favour of sustainable development, which campaigners say will give developers a licence to build on rural England. The Telegraph has urged ministers to think again with its "Hands Off Our Land" campaign. The Government is committed to publishing a revised version of the NPPF by the end of March.

The report suggests that economic claims about the benefits of the changes have been overstated.

It concludes that "there is no evidence that planning has large, economy-wide effects on productivity or employment". It adds that the draft NPPF "is unlikely therefore to have much effect on growth".

Mr Osborne has justified pushing through the changes by saying that planning delays cost Britain £3 billion every year. But MPs were told in November that the forecast was based on figures nearly two decades old.
A Communities and Local Government spokesman said: "This report misses a fundamental point. Our reforms will put power into the hands of communities to deliver the sustainable development they need for the future while safeguarding the countryside."
Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands-off-our-land/9078191/Planning-reform-will-not-boost-growth-or-employment.html