One hundred communities across the country have now taken control of development in their local area by voting for the adoption of their Neighbourhood Plans.
More than 8 million people in 1,600 neighbourhoods across England now live in designated Neighbourhood Planning areas and today (Friday, October 9) marks 100 successful Neighbourhood Planning referendums throughout England.
People in 100 areas in the country have now taken the final step in the process and made the decision to take control of building and development in their neighbourhoods. Communities come together through the neighbourhood planning process to have their say over where new homes, shops and offices are built, what new buildings should look like, to protect and enhance their local high streets, choose where new industries should be located, or protect their local green spaces.
Locality, the national network of ambitious and enterprising community-led organisations, delivers the Neighbourhood Planning programme on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government and has supported groups through the Neighbourhood Planning process since the Localism Act first emerged in 2011 and so far have allocated £6.7 million in government grants to groups all over England.
In the final stage of the process, once a Neighbourhood Plan is passed at referendum it becomes part of Statutory Planning Policy and all planning decisions must legally be guided by it. This gives communities a real seat at the decision making table and enables them to determine the future of their area.
Locality Chief Executive Tony Armstrong said: “In the four years since Neighbourhood Planning was first introduced, hundreds of communities across the country have stepped up to have a say on how their local area develops.
“People care deeply about where they live and want to be able to influence what kind of development happens on their doorstep. Whether that’s ensuring there’s enough affordable housing for their children in the future, protecting green spaces or safeguarding their neighbourhood’s heritage, they get to say what’s important to them and, more importantly, they get to be listened to.
“Neighbourhood Planning puts power back into the hands of people, instead of elected representatives, and gives them collective clout to really shape where they live for the benefit of the people who live there.”
Neighbourhood Planning is a way to enable ordinary people to shape their communities and influence growth in an area so that is recognises the character and distinctiveness of where they live. It allows local residents to set their own planning policies that reflect their priorities, deliver tangible local benefits and carry real weight in planning decisions.
Locality has directly supported more than 1,000 communities to develop neighbourhood plans. More than 200,000 votes have been cast at referendum and turnout in some areas is higher than for the general election with an average of 88% of people voting ‘yes’.
Tony Armstrong added: “In some cases turnout for referendums has been higher than 60% which just goes to show how much people care about their own neighbourhoods. The fact that there are now 100 communities in England which have voted to adopt their plans is a real milestone and I hope many more areas will follow in their footsteps.”