Planning with People, Not Just Numbers
This petition accompanies the open letter below, which will be sent to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, and the Prime Minister, together with the names of everyone who has signed.
Petition to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
We support the delivery of the homes our country needs, including genuinely affordable
homes for local people. But homes should be delivered through good planning, with local
communities involved, infrastructure provided alongside development, and a planning
system that values completed homes as much as planning permissions.
Across Test Valley in Hampshire, communities are losing confidence in the planning system.
Increasingly, planning decisions are driven by housing numbers and appeal risks rather than
by local evidence, infrastructure and democratic accountability. At the same time, many sites
with planning permission remain unbuilt while further greenfield development is proposed.
We call on the Government to:
1. Put brownfield sites first by giving stronger incentives to bring previously developed land forward before greenfield sites wherever practical.
2. Build the homes that already have planning permission before approving unnecessary speculative development.
3. Reform the five-year housing land supply so it supports plan-led growth instead of encouraging speculative development.
4. Give greater weight to roads, schools, healthcare and public transport when planning applications and appeals are decided.
5. Protect communities preparing Local Plans and Neighbourhood Development Plans, so their work is not undermined while plans are being developed.
6. Support councillors to make planning decisions based on local evidence and local circumstances, without undue concern that well-reasoned decisions will be overturned on appeal.
7. Deliver genuinely affordable homes for local people, in sustainable locations close to jobs, schools, services and public transport.
8. Ensure planning is done with communities, not to communities, so local people have a genuine voice in shaping the places where they live.
Planning should be done with communities, not to them.
Open Letter to the Secretary of State
The following letter is being sent on behalf of the residents, councillors and community representatives whose names appear on the accompanying petition.
Dear Secretary of State,
Congratulations on your recent appointment. We are residents, councillors and community representatives from Test Valley in Hampshire who believe England needs homes with a much better planning system.
This is not a campaign against development. We support building the homes our country needs, including genuinely affordable homes and social housing. However, we believe communities are far more likely to support growth when it is properly planned, supported by infrastructure and shaped with local people rather than imposed upon them.
In Test Valley, the loss of our five-year housing land supply has opened the door to a growing wave of speculative planning applications, creating what many residents experience as a planning free-for-all. Communities increasingly feel that years spent preparing Local Plans and Neighbourhood Development Plans can be overridden by a system driven more by housing numbers than by good planning.
Residents are also asking a simple question: why are more greenfield sites coming forward while many developments that already have planning permission remain unbuilt? The planning system should reward the delivery of homes, not simply the granting of permissions.
We therefore ask the Government to:
- Put brownfield sites first by giving stronger incentives to bring previously developed land forward before greenfield sites wherever practical.
- Build the homes that already have planning permission before approving unnecessary speculative development.
- Reform the five-year housing land supply so it supports plan-led growth instead of encouraging speculative development.
- Give greater weight to roads, schools, healthcare, and public transport when planning applications and appeals are decided.
- Protect communities preparing Local Plans and Neighbourhood Development Plans, so their work is not undermined while plans are being developed.
- Support councillors to make planning decisions based on local evidence and local circumstances, without undue concern that well-reasoned decisions will be overturned on appeal.
- Deliver genuinely affordable homes for local people, in sustainable locations close to jobs, schools, services and public transport.
- Ensure planning is done with communities, not to communities, so local people have a genuine voice in shaping the places where they live.
We believe it is entirely possible to build the homes the country needs while maintaining public confidence in the planning system.
Successful planning is not just about meeting housing targets. It is about creating places where people want to live, supported by the infrastructure they need, with communities genuinely involved in shaping change.
We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss how planning reform can achieve both.
Planning should be done with communities, not to them.
Yours faithfully,