East Suffolk Council
Statement from Cllr Mark Packard, Cabinet Member for Planning and Coastal Management
Cllr Mark Packard, Cabinet Member for Planning and Coastal Management at East Suffolk Council has issued the following statement in response to the Government’s announcement regarding the National Planning Policy Framework.
“We will need time to fully digest the implications of this announcement. However, it is clear that our response to the Government’s consultation - which laid out our concerns about proposals to enforce unachievable housebuilding targets - have been disregarded.
“We entirely refute the Government’s characterisation of local government as ‘blockers’ to planning – particularly here in East Suffolk, where we are quite the opposite. Our Planning Team, the Committees, and the Council more widely, are committed to enabling and delivering the right development in the right place in this part of the country.
“Our current Local Plans already include ambitious plans for housing and economic growth – with just over 900 homes a year and over 20,000 homes to be built during the plans’ lifetime to 2036. This includes seven strategic sites of up to 2,000 homes, including Garden Communities, delivering new community-scale housing and infrastructure over the long term.
“We recognise the need for more housing in England, given that many local communities, like our own, struggle with housing affordability along with the challenges of second homes in tourism hotspots. However, the significant increase in housing numbers which the Government are now demanding, is entirely unrealistic, and the Government’s top-down approach will drastically undermine public trust in the Planning Process.”