Reference: TCPA recommendation for the creation of a new planning authority, Ofplan

ZEDHomes has reviewed with interest the Town and Country Planning Association’s paper ‘Regulating Planning – Ofplan’, issued March 2007.

Although this document failed to resonate widely, ZEDHomes would concur with the need for a wholesale change to the UK planning system.

Specifically, ZEDHomes would welcome any change that addresses the following issues:

- the need to drive Government policy through to local level, quickly and efficiently
- ability of policy makers to enforce such policy
- the need to educate planners in newer, more environmentally friendly building measures
- the current need for so many planning applications to be determined on appeal
- a lack of diversity in housing stock design and innovation: smaller developers find  the costs of appeal prohibitive and therefore err on the side of caution
- thousands of homes are currently being built without incorporating ecologically sustainable design, which will result in huge costs of correction from 2012.

“There’s a disconnect between the rhetoric and reality in terms of ‘greener’ homes,” said Michael Shwartz, Managing Director, ZEDHomes.  “This has to close quickly if we genuinely want to see a reduction in greenhouse gases, and reduce the waste of increasing scarce resources such as water.” 

/ends