Minister offers talks on planning

3 September 2011 Last updated at 00:35 ET

Campaigners say they fear the plans threaten the countryside

Ministers say they are willing to hold talks with the National Trust and other opponents of government proposals to simplify England’s planning system.

Planning minister Greg Clark told the Times protection for the countryside could be expressed “more clearly”.

But he said the government would not back down on its aim to boost house-building and the economy.

Campaigners say they fear excessive development under the Draft National Planning Policy Framework.

The plan, published in July, streamlines policy that currently weighs in at more than 1,000 pages down to just 52.

The Department for Communities and Local Government says it intends to transform a system whose “volume and complexity have made planning increasingly inaccessible to all but specialists”.

But the National Trust said the plans “failed to protect the everyday places that local communities love” while the Campaign to Protect Rural England said the government needed “to listen and make further improvements or the consequences for the English countryside and the character of our towns and villages will be grave”.

‘Balanced’ decisions

Mr Clark told the Times the opponents had got the “wrong end of the stick”.

“My interests and my concerns are the same as the environmental groups to ensure that the development that we need takes place but that it does so in a way that enhances rather than undermines our environment,” he said.

He added that failure to see the reforms through would have an impact on future generations.

“The consequences would be to continue the position we are in where we are not building enough homes for the people needing them for the first time,” he said.

“We are contributing to homelessness, to overcrowding, to poverty.”

Peter Nixon, the National Trust’s director of conservation, welcomed Mr Clark’s invitation.

He told the Times the government had the right “aspirations” but the proposals currently did not allow planning authorities to make decisions in a “balanced way”.

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