Taylor Report calls for shake-up of rural planning

[Mark]

Taylor report calls for shake-up of rural planning
by Michael Donelly, PlanningResource, 23 July 2008
Ref: http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=evywz1I45fgwfuI0

A fundamental shake up of planning and affordable housing policy is
vital to revive rural communities, a major report says today.

Living Working Countryside, the independent review by Matthew Taylor MP
commissioned by the Prime Minister, finds that the high cost of homes
coupled with the low wages of rural workers are creating unsustainable
pressures that threaten the future of rural communities.

Key recommendations in the report include:

·              a commitment to the role of the planning system to deliver
affordable housing in rural communities;

·              an inspiring recommendation that significant extensions to
market towns, [4] where justified and needed, should be master-planned
with long term quality of building at the top of the agenda;

·              concentration on high quality long term outcomes, rather
than short term targets for local authorities;

·              putting the consent of local communities at the heart of
delivering affordable housing in rural settlements;

·              support for home working for those living in rented or
part-owned accommodation;

·              strong commitment to the importance of local
distinctiveness and local design and design guidance for local authorities
in planning policy;

·              making it easier for local authorities to insist on a
proportion of affordable housing in small scale developments.

Taylor said: "The English countryside is a wonderful place to live and
work - if you can afford a home, if you can find a reasonably paid job.
But for too many people country life is challenging and urgent action is
vital to stop villages dying and our market towns being wrecked by
unsympathetic development.

"If we fail to build the affordable homes to enable the people who work in
the countryside to live there we risk turning our villages into gated
communities of wealthy commuters and the retired.

"We need to start creating attractive new neighbourhoods and communities
as our market towns grow, or we’ll wreck them. Endless bland housing
estates crammed onto the edge of towns are often unattractive, they fail
to deliver local services, shops or open spaces. The residents end up
driving into town for everything they need, clogging up the roads. No
wonder local people so often oppose them."

The CPRE broadly welcomed the report. Tom Oliver, head of rural policy
said: "CPRE does not agree with every recommendation in the report. In
particular, we oppose relaxing planning rules which at the moment attach
great importance to the presence of public transport in deciding the
location of new business development.

"Especially with a likely long term increase in fuel prices, we should be
working towards more public transport provision for rural communities,
rather than seeking to rely on it less.’

"The challenge for government is to take the many wise and important
recommendations in the Taylor Report and act on them. In so doing, they
should be clear that the quality of rural towns, villages and the
countryside are a vital ingredient for success. Commitment to long term
planning, community consent and high quality design will be at the heart
of successful policies for the countryside."