Parliamentary committee, London Mayor and National Trust warn on planning policy

The Government’s vision of sustainable development needs more balanced and "the Committee considers the final version will have to make it clearer that the drive for economic growth does not trump other sustainability requirements", the Environmental Audit Committee said.

The Government has vowed to keep a "balance between the three pillars of sustainability" however, "the NPPF as currently drafted does not bear out that balance", it said.

Changes to the planning regime should be underpinned by a new definition of "sustainable development", the Committee said. The impending Localism Bill does not contain a definition of the term, so the NPPF should be revised so that it includes the principles set out in the 2005 Sustainable Development Strategy, it said.

The NPPF should "indeed go further by specifying a need for environmental gain (rather than simply protection)", the letter said.

The draft NPPF contains a "presumption in favour of sustainable development", meaning that that where a local plan is "absent, silent, indeterminate or where relevant policies are out of date" the default answer to development should be yes.

This means that it is very important for local authorities to have local plans in place that clearly set out the types of development the local authority will approve, the Committee's letter said..

The Select Committee is, therefore, calling for robust transitional arrangements to be introduced "alongside the final NPPF to allow local authorities to be ready to continue from day-one to be able to influence the sustainability of the development in their areas".

London Mayor Boris Johnson has also warned ministers that the draft NPPF is too focused on economic development.

In referring to the controversial "presumption in favour of sustainable development" Johnson said in his response to the NPPF consultation that there are parts of the document where “it appears the concept relates to economic development only".

There should be greater resilience on social and environmental evidence, said Johnson, who took the opportunity to suggest alternative draft wording in his response.

There are three strands to the Government's interpretation of sustainable development. These include social, environmental and economic aims and Johnson argued that these should have more prevalence in the policy document.

"There are some issues that are of over-arching importance to all three strands of sustainable development, which ought to be highlighted at the start of the document. These include climate change and the drive towards a low carbon economy, which has environmental, economic and social aspects," he said.

The National Trust also continues its campaign to force a revision of the NPPF. The Trust argues that the Government should not be tempted by the "lure of the quick fix".

Trust director general Dame Fiona Reynolds is due to hold talks with Prime Minister David Cameron today and will argue that the UK should learn from other countries "that have embarked on radical deregulation of the planning system, such as Ireland, Greece and Spain" who have been plagued by economic crises.

The current draft of the NPPF “presents the vision of a return to the bad old days of planning by appeal and soulless out-of-town developments,” Reynolds said.