Campaigners push for further changes as Levelling Up Bill back in Parliament

Conservation charities are urging their followers to lobby MPs to back a Labour amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill today which will stymie the government’s plan for a new set of National Development Management Policies.

The controversial bill, progress on which was delayed last month as backbench Tory rebels sought and secured a major climb down from Michael Gove on housing targets, is back in the Commons today with votes on planning reforms expected.

The leader of the rebel Conservative group, Theresa Villiers, has withdrawn all her amendments given the concessions offered last week by the secretary of state – making local housing targets advisory rather than mandatory – with policy proposals now expected to be consulted upon before Christmas.

However, the Better Planning Coalition, a grouping of housing, conservation and planning charities, and countryside charity the CPRE have been urging supporters to support further changes to the Bill, which is designed to introduce a new nationwide Infrastructure Levy and centrally-set national planning policies which can trump local plans.

The CPRE is urging supporters to back a Labour amendment – number 78 – specifically tabled to “give[s] precedence to local development plans over national policies”. The CPRE tweeted that “Local democratic planning should not be up for debate!” and urged its supporters to tweet messages to their MPs calling for them to back amendment 78.

The government’s plan to draw up a new set of National Development Management Policies has been criticised as centralising and undemocratic because of the stipulation in the bill that the new policies will trump local plan policies if they are in conflict. Michael Gove last week promised to “clarify and consult on what areas we propose to be in scope of the new National Development Management Policies” when it publishes the NPPF consultation before Christmas, and then to consult on each new policy before it is brought forward.

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Owen Edwards, co-ordinator for the Better Planning Coalition said it was “vitally important the government provide more information on National Development Management Policies, as its really important they have the proper public and parliamentary scrutiny.”

The Better Planning Coalition is itself urging MPs to support a backbench Labour motion designed to stop the government changing the current system of environmental impact assessments without parliamentary scrutiny, and a frontbench Labour amendment calling for an immediate review of the use of permitted development rights.

Other amendments proposed by Labour include amendments to make the propose Infrastructure Levy optional, introduce a duty to support climate change in the operation of the planning system, and to re-instate virtual planning committee meetings.

The Commons is expected to vote on the amendments this evening after a lengthy debate on the planning proposals in the Bill this afternoon. The debate follows Gove’s decision last week to offer a number of concessions after rebel Tories secured 60 supporters for amendments to scrap mandatory housing targets.

Gove last week said a draft revised National Planning Policy Framework, to be published before Christmas for consultation, will include changes meaning that local housing need numbers are “advisory” and a “starting point” for local authorities – not a target.

Councils will be able to cite a whole new range of factors as “constraints” which can be used to justify not meeting housing need, and local plans will not have to pass as rigorous a test to be adopted.

The housing secretary also said that new measures would be introduced to attempt to get developers to build out homes more quickly, and that the requirement for councils with local plans in place to demonstrate a five year supply of land would be scrapped.

Labour leader Keir Starmer last week accused the government in prime minister’s questions of breaking its promise of meeting 300,000 homes a year and of having done “a grubby deal with a handful of his MPs” that had “sold out the aspirations of those who want to own their own home.”