CPRE Surrey responds to government’s new planning framework

The Surrey Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE Surrey) has set out its views on the Government’s proposed new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

In a document entitled “NPPF24: The Surrey Perspective” which CPRE Surrey has submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, the charity lays out its concerns about the proposed changes to the planning system.

CPRE Surrey warns that the population of Surrey could grow by 40% to over 1.7m if the Government’s proposed new formula for calculating housing requirements is adopted. The charity says if imposed on local authorities the Government’s new mandatory housing targets will be hugely damaging to the environment and quality of life in Surrey.

The increase, says the charity, would be “completely unsustainable in what is already a severely congested county with chronically stretched public services and infrastructure. Such an increase would inflict serious damage on the natural environment, especially in terms of biodiversity, at a time when we should be working to reverse the downward trend and aid nature recovery. We also need to retain our farmland for local food production.”

CPRE Surrey’s submission to the Government also examines the impact on each of Surrey’s 11 districts and boroughs, and looks at issues of affordability and housing need, which it says will not be helped by ministers’ proposals, as well as the effect on the Green Belt and people’s access to local countryside, and on local democracy, which CPRE believes will be undermined by the Government’s proposals.