Safeguarding a great success of our planning system

Published: 31 July 2024

Ever since Labour created National Parks 75 years ago, the planning system has played a key role in protecting these beautiful landscapes. England’s 10 National Parks, visited by 100 million visitors each year, are a great legacy of previous governments. They are also a testament to the success of our planning system, a system which enables appropriate development while preventing insensitive change, unsympathetic land use or irresponsible development in places which are valued for their wildlife and natural beauty. 

The new Government intends to make radical changes to planning to increase housebuilding and speed up infrastructure delivery. It has also made a very welcome commitment to helping National Parks become wilder and greener. If both these ambitions are to be achieved, it is absolutely essential that measures to support development are introduced in a way which takes full account of the additional protections for National Parks and National Landscape already in place. Failure to do so would risk damage to the important wildlife and habitats in these areas and could have a negative impact on tourism and other rural businesses which rely on a high-quality environment.  

Additional planning protections

The first real test of the Government’s intentions came with the publication yesterday of a consultation on reforms to national planning policy. We’re really pleased that they plan to retain all the specific requirements relating to Protected Landscapes, including the presumption against major development and the emphasis on limiting the scale and extent of development in these areas and their settings. It is also good to see that land in Protected Landscapes is excluded from the definition of ‘grey belt’, a new designation aimed at releasing parts of the Green Belt for housing.  

We were also delighted by the Chancellor’s decision this week to cancel the A27 Arundel Bypass, a hugely damaging road proposal on the edge of the South Downs which we’ve been campaigning against for many years. Not only did the scheme represent incredibly poor value for money but it would have destroyed ancient woodlands and led to increased noise and air pollution within the National Park. It is most definitely not the kind of infrastructure we need at a time of nature and climate crisis, and it is great that it has finally been axed.  

However, we need to ensure that in future National Parks are much better protected from the negative impacts of development on, or close to their boundaries. A recent legislative change means that there is now a stronger duty on bodies such as Government Ministers and local planning authorities to consider the potential impact of any decisions they make on the wildlife and other special features of National Parks and National Landscapes. But so far there has been too little effort to ensure that those making decisions for areas in and adjoining Protected Landscapes are aware of this important new responsibility and are implementing it effectively. We want Government to publish guidance and regulations on this new duty as a matter of urgency. 

Further reforms planned

The next big test of the Government’s intentions will be the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which was announced in the King’s Speech earlier this month. Ministers have already made it clear that this Bill will include measures to modernise planning committees and require them to involve people with the right expertise in decision-making. There is no detail yet on what that means in practice, but development of the reforms will need to take account of the fact that National Park Authorities play a unique role as local planning authorities which balance both national and local interests when making decisions.  

This legislation also offers a huge opportunity to modernise governance arrangements in National Parks and ensure that there is much greater emphasis on nature recovery in all the decision-making for these areas. The Glover Landscapes Review in 2019 identified the need for substantial reforms to reduce the size of National Park Authority Boards and make them more efficient and more representative of the general population. Nearly five years on this remains one of the most critical areas of the review where action is still needed. The need to reform National Park governance was also one of the key recommendations from the Health Check Report we published in April which sets out the changes needed to ensure wildlife can thrive in our National Parks. A small amendment to this Bill could have a big impact.  

These planning reforms provide the new Government with some real potential to build on the National Parks legacy and safeguard it long into the future but only if every opportunity is taken to strengthen their planning protections and modernise their governance.