Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood (Labour Party) introduced a debate on the planning aspects of the Housing Bill in a Commons session on 5 January, stating that ‘this Bill has no vision for planning… It weakens our plan-led system and erodes the ability of the planning system to deliver high-quality, beautiful, sustainable places’.
Of particular interest to members may be the example given of the potential issues with the use of planning permission in principle, citing the example of considerations within a historic town centre:
Let us take, for example, a brownfield site in a historic town centre. It might be possible to judge without too much detailed information that 10 housing units could be developed on the site, and permission in principle could therefore be given, but there may be archaeological remains below the ground, and issues such as the massing of development and the style of the architecture might be absolutely critical in determining whether development on the site is acceptable. (Hansard 5 Jan 2016, Column 221)
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