Heritage Alliance has provided an update on discussions in the House of Lords around the NPPF.
Heritage Alliance writes:
In a lively exchange in the Lords on Monday (23 January), Peers urged the Government to show its commitment to culture through the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Last year the Government decided ‘to include cultural development under the general heading of leisure and community facilities’ and as such protection of cultural interests is not specifically mentioned in the NPPF. This is an issue which the Alliance and Alliance members have been working hard to address.
Baroness McIntosh (Lab) recommended ‘the language of the national planning policy framework might be strengthened to give a little more than just a nod in the direction of cultural institutions’ and Lord Davies (Lab) concurred that with the Cultural Olympiad round the corner the Government should be ‘more positive about this aspect with regard to planning’.
Viscount Clancarty (Crossbench) highlighted the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s recommendation that the NPPF should adopt a more inclusive definition of sustainable development, ‘particularly considering that culture has previously been defined in planning policy as one of the four main components of sustainable growth, alongside economics, social inclusion and environment’. Lord Brooke (Con) reminded the CLG Minister Baroness Hanham (Con) that she had ‘rejected certain amendments to the Localism Bill which included culture and heritage in this context’ and asked if she had ‘an inkling that this subject may be returned to quite frequently in the future’ – an inkling the Minister affirmed.
Baroness Hanham told the House ‘there are questions about the interpretation of sustainable development, and that issue is being looked at with regard to the result of the consultation that has just taken place.’ She confirmed the Government aimed to publish the final NPPF by the end of March, if not earlier.
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