Labour’s Planning Reforms. Stab In the Back for Democracy & Environment. What To Do?

Credit Get Wild

Labour’s Planning reforms which are, or will soon become  law,  are profoundly undemocratic, pro-developer, and massively anti-environmental. The main issues are

The revised  National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which was published in February 2025 and which  makes it much easier for property developers to build  houses, or anything else,  on farmland, open spaces, or on the green belt.

The automatic award of planning permission, If a planning application is deemed by planning officers to comply with the NPPF then it will be  rubber stamped without any discussion or vote by councillors or any input from the public or interested parties.

The Land Use Framework (LUF) which is being worked on by the Government right now and which Minsters have already said will allow for at least 10% of the country’s agricultural land to be built on.

The exclusion of first stage comments from “expert” statutory consultees such as local councils, utility companies, environmental organisations etc. will be disallowed on major infrastructure projects such as Minster Marshes.

The limitation of judicial reviews concerning  major infrastructure projects such as Minster Marshes, making it easier for developers and utility companies to do what they wish without challenge.

Growing Opposition. Literally hundreds of planning, environmental, leisure,  food and farming and community  organisations  from across the country, such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the National Farmers Union, The Wildlife Trust etc. have written to the Labour Government demanding that it  rolls  back its pro-developer approach to planning and the removal of the longstanding democratic rights of those effected by developments to state their objections or appeal to the courts.

But the Labour  Government Won’t Listen. Despite being thrashed in last week’s council elections for attacking the poorest and most vulnerable people in society and abandoning its environmental promises , Prime Minster Keir Starmer has decided to ignore  the voice of the people. Instead he has said that he will double down of his massively unpopular policies and push harder and faster to force them through Parliament. This means the poor, disabled  and elderly will become even poorer and more disadvantaged than the already are, and that our environment will be at the mercy of greedy destructive property developers and utility companies.

What to do? We must organise and  resist the dangerous policies of the Labour Government and the implementation of these policies by local and regional councils such as TDC and the newly Reform controlled KCC.

Thanet's Enough is Enough movement is a start but we need organisations like this in every village town and city to protect our environment and fight against the overdevelopment of our farmland, open spaces, habitats, woodland, waterways and beaches.