Blog: Just when you think it couldn’t get worse, it does.
Naomi Ludhe-Thompson, Director, Rights Community Action
“It’s a cornerstone of our democracy that we have a voice in decisions on the places we live in.”
Dying democracy
Thousands of us up and down the country, at some point in our lives, have had something to say about that new road that’s being built, the incinerator visible on the horizon, the prospect of gas drilling rigs appearing in the fields. Lots of us object to the housing swallowing up precious green space or playing fields, even if we’re also aware of the housing crisis and the need for affordable homes. Whether we’re right or wrong in objecting to the development, the point is that we should, all of us, defend to the death the right to have a say on what happens where.
It’s a cornerstone of our democracy that we have a voice in decisions on the places we live in. For 75 years we’ve enjoyed this right to have a say on what gets built where - but not for much longer.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is silencing people, communities, councils.
The Government isn’t interested in your view on what gets built where.
In England, the Government has introduced new laws, currently on their way through Parliament, that give the Secretary of State the power to change the rules for development at whim, on a daily basis, over their morning coffee.
There is no requirement to consult
No requirement to assess the rules for their impact on us, our jobs, our lives or our environment.
And no requirement for our elected members, be they local or national to give their views.
The Secretary of State can trump your local plan, approved by your locally elected members, or your neighbourhood plan, at any moment. That’s a huge centralisation of power, and means your voice effectively becomes meaningless on the rules on what happens where.
In mid-Autumn, the House of Commons will have an opportunity to debate these proposed laws in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. Your MP can speak on these issues if you make your concerns known to them. (Read the legal opinion on the proposed changes here.)
The Government already massively increased “permitted development” – that’s development where there is no need to submit an application to get permission - in Summer 2020 (read more on that here).
Fracking anywhere and everywhere
Lifting the ban on fracking just locks us as people and communities into more dependence on fossil fuels, more high energy bills, more inevitable impacts from climate change such as flooding and heatwaves. Gas as a resource does not make us as a country more resilient. It’s just sold on the market, and we continue to pay high energy bills. If anyone tells you that generating more gas will help lower the price, just ask them what will they do when we’re all facing the loss of our homes, rising food prices, and killer heatwaves? Beyond our pockets, the costs everywhere continue to rise. Climate change is happening now.
This support for fracking is coming from a government that cancelled the rules to make our homes zero carbon in 2016. If they hadn’t done that, all new homes built since 2016 wouldn’t need to be heated by gas – they would effectively have had no heating bills.
If the Government had stuck to its commitment to insulate homes, it would not now be spending billions on a single year to help with energy bills, which will do nothing for next year or the year after. So much time has been lost, and continues to be lost. Poorer families are having to pay the price.
Instead it is handing over the money to energy companies for one bumper Christmas gift - which will be paid for by us, for years to come. Would you rather insulate our homes or fill the coffers of big energy companies?
It doesn’t matter which you would rather, you don’t have a voice.
Fracking attracts much public opposition and what is the Government’s response? Instead of listening, It takes away your right to have a say.
In the last few years, it has proposed making fracking “permitted development” – that means no permission is required, there is no right to have a say Or giving fracking the status of a “nationally significant infrastructure project” - that would take the decision-making power away from local councils. Or the Government could just leave the rules as they are in the national planning policy framework (the rules in England for what gets built where locally) and Councils will have to fight extremely hard to protect their communities from damaging development and adding to the climate change problem.
A government that regards the voice of the people who object as the problem to solve and not the substance of the objections is a dangerous one. What is there to fear from local concerns about the traffic, noise, and pollution; the need to tackle climate change; the quality and affordability of the homes for the poorest?
What colour do you want the gates?
Early in September the Government announced it would be changing the rules for deciding on major infrastructure. That’s all of the following (from Planning Act 2008):
Energy
15. Generating stations
16. Electric lines
17. Underground gas storage facilities
18. LNG facilities
19. Gas reception facilities
20. Gas transporter pipe-lines
21. Other pipe-lines
Transport
22. Highways
23. Airports
24. Harbour facilities
25. Railways
26. Rail freight interchanges
Water
27. Dams and reservoirs
28. Transfer of water resources
28A. Desalination plants
Waste water
29. Waste water treatment plants
Waste
30. Hazardous waste facilities
30A. Radioactive waste geological disposal facilities
New laws have been introduced to change the timeframe for these developments.
There is no minimum.
To repeat, there is no minimum timeframe. Theoretically, you could decide to build an airport runway in a week. Or a huge set of pylon lines. For these large, hugely impactful projects, that may mean the destruction of a village to make way for a new airport runway; or the irrevocably changed landscape when pylon lines march across; or the public cost of a nuclear power station; or the constant noise and barrier of a motorway…they will be decided with barely any time to even read the documents, let alone investigate and understand the impacts, to think about how local communities could adapt or what will be irretrievably lost.
This is another devastating blow to our democracy.
To recap – you don’t have a say on lots of changes to buildings and extensions anymore.
You can have a say in your local plan, but does that matter when at any moment the Secretary of State can overrule your local council and change the rules?
You can object to a development, but the Secretary of State can render your voice irrelevant.
You can ask for ten minutes to express your objection to an airport runway/power station/pylon lines/roads, but within weeks the development could be approved.
Your voice is now no more than a whisper.
But Rights Community Action are listening – and we want to amplify every voice in every community. Let us know how Government silencing your voice makes you feel.
