Planning reforms will overwhelm Sussex with more development

Proposals will see housing targets rise by as much as 168% while still failing to tackle the crisis in affordable housing.

The proposed ‘1.5 million home’ planning reforms fail to tackle the affordable housing crisis and threaten to overwhelm Sussex with more development.

CPRE Sussex is urging residents to send a strong message to ministers over the plans which would see new centrally determined mandatory housing targets imposed on Local Authorities. See below how to respond to the Government consultation.

In Sussex, every area bar one, will see targets rise – in some cases dramatically – with Chichester’s figure increasing by 59% and Worthing’s by a staggering 168%.

The proposals would place councillors under extreme pressure to agree large numbers of planning permissions for major developers.

This would further endanger green spaces, places for wildlife, existing infrastructure and land for food production and flood management.

Analyses by CPRE and the Town and Country Planning Association also suggests leaving the delivery of housing in the hands of big developers means the Government will fail to address the very real crisis in rural affordable housing.

Chair of CPRE Sussex Dan Osborn said: “These plans perpetuate the myth that granting planning permission means the houses we need will be built. The proposals reinforce developers’ control of the housing market, but they will only build the homes that make profits, not the homes people need at the prices and rents they can truly afford.

“Local Authorities need more powers, and more money, to lead on building sustainable housing which is affordable to people on local wages and supported by real infrastructure. They do not need diktats requiring them to open up precious land to speculative development.

“Planning should be about balancing our different needs, for housing, food, water, employment, health-promoting green spaces and views making space for nature. Handing over large chunks of our countryside to developers in a rush for growth is the opposite of this.”

New housing targets for Sussex areas

The Government is proposing introducing a New Standard Method that will result in increased housing targets across every area in Sussex apart from Eastbourne. Some of these increases are unprecedented.

1. Worthing up 168%
2. Chichester up 58.7%
3. Hastings up 47.4%
4. Horsham up 41.1 %
5. Crawley up 38.9%
6. Mid Sussex up 22.8%
7. Adur up 21.4%
8. Rother up 21%
9. Lewes up 6.6%
10. Arun up 4.99%
11. Brighton & Hove up 5%.

Eastbourne down 2.4%.

CPRE analysis

Analysis from CPRE shows that:

• Across England there is sufficient brownfield capacity to deliver 1.2 million homes. (CPRE State of Brownfield Report, December 2022, using brownfield register data from 344 local authorities in England).
• There is a real need for greater numbers of rural affordable housing, in particular, social rented homes. (CPRE, State of Rural Affordable Housing, November 2023). However, the Government must redefine the term ‘affordable housing’ so the cost of new affordable homes for sale or rent are directly linked to average local incomes.

Respond to consultation

CPRE Sussex is urging residents to submit their responses to the Government consultation. The consultation closes on 24 September, and can be found at gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-reforms-to-the-national-planning-policy-framework-and-other-changes-to-the-planning-system