The Latest CPA News - at your fingertips
|
November 1st, 2025
Veering Off Plan - our report investigating the economics of why the government's 'Build Baby Build' mantra won't work
|
In In its efforts to address housing affordability, the Government has set unprecedented targets without a clear roadmap outlining how it expects (the private sector) to deliver it.
In the run up to the November 2025 budget, there is a growing queue outside Number 11 waiting to issue warnings that efforts to boost housebuilding are veering off plan and that the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR)’s forecasts may be optimistic. These warnings from the heart of the housing sector reflect concerns that poorly specified targets reliant upon simplified diagnoses are neither credible nor productive.
The evidence clearly suggests that Planning reform alone is insufficient without investment in local authority capacity, infrastructure, and delivery mechanisms. The socio-economic impacts of housebuilding are contingent on actual build-out rates and sales, not just permissions. These continue to be constrained by multiple factors on both the supply side and the demand side.
Rather than trot out tropes of ‘build baby build’, and ‘beat the blockers’, that serve only to alienate and exclude, the Government could perhaps listen to these voices from across the industry and across the country and engage to create an inclusive and realistic roadmap.
In the run up to the November 2025 budget, there is a growing queue outside Number 11 waiting to issue warnings that efforts to boost housebuilding are veering off plan and that the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR)’s forecasts may be optimistic. These warnings from the heart of the housing sector reflect concerns that poorly specified targets reliant upon simplified diagnoses are neither credible nor productive.
The evidence clearly suggests that Planning reform alone is insufficient without investment in local authority capacity, infrastructure, and delivery mechanisms. The socio-economic impacts of housebuilding are contingent on actual build-out rates and sales, not just permissions. These continue to be constrained by multiple factors on both the supply side and the demand side.
Rather than trot out tropes of ‘build baby build’, and ‘beat the blockers’, that serve only to alienate and exclude, the Government could perhaps listen to these voices from across the industry and across the country and engage to create an inclusive and realistic roadmap.
Click here for our Veering Off Plan report
|
October 24th, 2025
CPA releases report on how 'grey belt' rules will cover swathes of Green Belt in concrete
|
"This is not targeted regeneration. It is open season," the report warns.
Our new report, 'Greying the Green Belt: The unnecessary making of a grey, unpleasant land', reveals the alarming scale and consequences of a policy shift that is quietly reclassifying swathes of England’s countryside as 'grey belt'.
Despite promises from Sir Keir Starmer that "ugly, disused" land, such as abandoned petrol stations and car parks, would be prioritised, the reality is starkly different. Planning inspectors are overturning local decisions, and developers are being handed a blank cheque to build on land that, until recently, would have been deemed inappropriate.
The report:
The report calls on the Government to:
1. Reverse the grey belt rules with immediate effect.
2. Stop the land grab. Adopt a 'greenfield last' sequential test policy under the 'Homes for Everyone' approach. There are over 3 million potential homes on brownfield land, in empty properties and derelict commercial and public buildings and in unbuild planning permissions. There is no need to build on our countryside.
Our new report, 'Greying the Green Belt: The unnecessary making of a grey, unpleasant land', reveals the alarming scale and consequences of a policy shift that is quietly reclassifying swathes of England’s countryside as 'grey belt'.
Despite promises from Sir Keir Starmer that "ugly, disused" land, such as abandoned petrol stations and car parks, would be prioritised, the reality is starkly different. Planning inspectors are overturning local decisions, and developers are being handed a blank cheque to build on land that, until recently, would have been deemed inappropriate.
The report:
- Sets out nine case studies which are the tip of the iceberg, but demonstrate that productive farmland and village edge countryside are already at risk
- Notes findings by CPRE Hertfordshire that, in Hertfordshire alone, more than 835 hectares of Green Belt are under threat.
- Notes that Hertsmere Borough Council has seen a 63% rise in major Green Belt applications in 2025, with most citing 'grey belt' justification.
- Cites a report that over 30,000 sites across England could meet 'grey belt' criteria.
- Launches a Grey Belt Tracker that enables communities to report development proposals on Green Belt land near them.
The report calls on the Government to:
1. Reverse the grey belt rules with immediate effect.
2. Stop the land grab. Adopt a 'greenfield last' sequential test policy under the 'Homes for Everyone' approach. There are over 3 million potential homes on brownfield land, in empty properties and derelict commercial and public buildings and in unbuild planning permissions. There is no need to build on our countryside.
Click here for link to our 'Greying the Green Belt' report
|
October 6th, 2025
Our Homes for Everyone Toolkit, to help campaigners check if their local council is using every available site
|
Last year we released our Homes for Everyone report and it was shared to MPs by over 12,000 people. We provided a methodology for finding and using existing dwellings and premises better and a process for meeting local needs, which would be affordable. But this year at all the party political conferences we only hear about "Build Baby Build" as the solution to housing need, with events sponsored by developers and red and blue caps promoting the Build mantra.
This short toolkit makes it easy for local people to check if their local council is trying hard enough to find existing and alternative sites to meet real housing need, before they allocate countryside.
This short toolkit makes it easy for local people to check if their local council is trying hard enough to find existing and alternative sites to meet real housing need, before they allocate countryside.
Click here for the Homes for Everyone toolkit
|
August 25th, 2025
CPA releases New Towns Checklist as government soon to release list of sites
|
New Towns: democratic deficit, delivery risks and farmland and nature lost
Update: the government New Towns Taskforce has released its report, link here.
Next month, the government’s New Towns Taskforce will make recommendations for ten to twelve new towns of over 10,000 homes. These new towns are being imposed top-down by government. There is no transparency about how decisions have been made, no community scrutiny, and no funding for necessary social housing and infrastructure. We fear that these housing numbers will not even be counted against local authority targets, but will be additional.
We therefore call for:
So, we've created a New Towns Checklist by which you can gauge whether any new town proposed near you has any chance of success. Unless all these boxes are ticked, the new town will fail, and should not go ahead.
There should not be a single stand-alone new town on greenfield, and all councils should follow the Homes for Everyone approach.
Update: the government New Towns Taskforce has released its report, link here.
Next month, the government’s New Towns Taskforce will make recommendations for ten to twelve new towns of over 10,000 homes. These new towns are being imposed top-down by government. There is no transparency about how decisions have been made, no community scrutiny, and no funding for necessary social housing and infrastructure. We fear that these housing numbers will not even be counted against local authority targets, but will be additional.
We therefore call for:
- a local referendum for every New Town;
- adherence to the Treasury Green Book;
- total transparency about Taskforce decision-making, including:
- public access to all documentation, for example viability appraisals;
- a public declaration of conflicts of interest for each member;
- risks to the public purse.
So, we've created a New Towns Checklist by which you can gauge whether any new town proposed near you has any chance of success. Unless all these boxes are ticked, the new town will fail, and should not go ahead.
There should not be a single stand-alone new town on greenfield, and all councils should follow the Homes for Everyone approach.
Click here for link to the New Towns Checklist
|
July 23rd, 2025
How does it feel? The impact of mass development on local people - Voices of the Blean
|
In March last year, people in the villages of Blean, Tyler Hill and Rough Common, near Canterbury, learnt that some 250 acres of greenfield land between their villages had been included as a site for a 2,000-house “rural settlement” in the draft Canterbury District Local Plan 2040.
The impact of the news on local people was great – and of course an example of what many people across the county are experiencing in the current political climate of ‘Build, build, build!’.
Over two weeks of November 2024, social researcher Rachael Reilly carried out a study in which she listened to the voices of local residents, campaigners and community leaders to understand what drove their concerns and the impact of the Blean development proposal on their lives.
Rachael says: “Too often the views of local communities are drowned out in technical planning processes and ‘consultation’ is restricted to the rigid confines of the statutory planning system. Residents who do raise their voices are dismissed by politicians and the media as ‘nimbys’, ‘blockers’ and ‘naysayers’ who hold up developments and stall economic growth and there has been little attempt to understand their viewpoint and perspective. This report aims to present an alternative perspective to this narrative.”
CPA supported Rachael’s research and provided a foreword to the report, alongside CPRE Kent, Kent Wildlife Trust and UCL Anthropology Department.
The impact of the news on local people was great – and of course an example of what many people across the county are experiencing in the current political climate of ‘Build, build, build!’.
Over two weeks of November 2024, social researcher Rachael Reilly carried out a study in which she listened to the voices of local residents, campaigners and community leaders to understand what drove their concerns and the impact of the Blean development proposal on their lives.
Rachael says: “Too often the views of local communities are drowned out in technical planning processes and ‘consultation’ is restricted to the rigid confines of the statutory planning system. Residents who do raise their voices are dismissed by politicians and the media as ‘nimbys’, ‘blockers’ and ‘naysayers’ who hold up developments and stall economic growth and there has been little attempt to understand their viewpoint and perspective. This report aims to present an alternative perspective to this narrative.”
CPA supported Rachael’s research and provided a foreword to the report, alongside CPRE Kent, Kent Wildlife Trust and UCL Anthropology Department.
|
March 11th, 2025
CPA press statement in response to the government Planning & Infrastructure Bill
|
Planning Bill: a ‘horror story’ for nature and an assault on democracy
The much-trailed Planning & Infrastructure Bill[1] was announced by the Government this week. It will tear up the nature protection rule book, allowing developers to destroy habitats without checking for endangered species. Instead, a new scheme will allow them to ‘pay to plunder’, with a nature recovery fund being set up to create new nature, often nowhere near the devastated habitats. There has been very widespread concern from ecologists[2] about the proposed approach.
In addition, nature will be put further at risk by proposals to strip local planning committees of many of their powers. This will reduce scrutiny of developer proposals at a time when nature needs more help than ever.
Rosie Pearson, Chairman of the Community Planning Alliance, said, “In this combined horror story for nature and assault on democracy, the government is placing Britain’s precious and beleaguered wildlife and countryside at enormous risk. It is abundantly clear that you cannot annihilate a colony of bats, or pillage the unique habitat of reptiles and invertebrates, and expect their species to flourish just because islands of rich habitat are provided somewhere completely different. In addition, we are at serious risk of creating a two-tier countryside – isolated pockets of nature reserves far from the infrastructure and housing which results in destruction of habitat in the first place. The British public loves nature[3] and wants the government to do more, not less to protect it.
Our own #TeamBat #TeamNewt campaign will be seeking to raise awareness of these issues. Everyone should write to their MP immediately. We have a national celebration of nature planned on May 24th. And we will be launching a petition to put nature first in the Planning & Infrastructure Bill.”
Chris Packham, environmental campaigner and TV presenter, said, “This is a giant nail in the coffin for nature. Here we are, in the middle of a biodiversity crisis, with habitats and species already in peril, when the government proposes removing protections for species and giving developers carte blanche to plunder habitats, in return for payments. Not only will this allow destruction of the environment, but there is no guarantee that the proposed nature restoration will work. Government’s proposals are not based on evidence and will lead to a double risk of habitats being ripped up but compensatory nature not being delivered.”
Caroline Lucas, environmental campaigner, said, “We are one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with ongoing rapid decline in our wildlife, with more than a quarter of mammals in Britain now facing extinction. We need a healthy natural world if we are to have any chance of tackling the climate emergency. Instead, already the government has rejected the Climate and Nature Bill and now these new changes place our remaining nature in peril. Without nature, our own wellbeing and survival is at risk.”
[1] Trailed through a series of Planning Reform Working Papers – all our responses are here
[2] You can see responses from a number of ecologists to the Nature & Development Working Paper here
[3] Our own polling in December showed strong support amongst voters of all parties for government to prioritise nature.
The much-trailed Planning & Infrastructure Bill[1] was announced by the Government this week. It will tear up the nature protection rule book, allowing developers to destroy habitats without checking for endangered species. Instead, a new scheme will allow them to ‘pay to plunder’, with a nature recovery fund being set up to create new nature, often nowhere near the devastated habitats. There has been very widespread concern from ecologists[2] about the proposed approach.
In addition, nature will be put further at risk by proposals to strip local planning committees of many of their powers. This will reduce scrutiny of developer proposals at a time when nature needs more help than ever.
Rosie Pearson, Chairman of the Community Planning Alliance, said, “In this combined horror story for nature and assault on democracy, the government is placing Britain’s precious and beleaguered wildlife and countryside at enormous risk. It is abundantly clear that you cannot annihilate a colony of bats, or pillage the unique habitat of reptiles and invertebrates, and expect their species to flourish just because islands of rich habitat are provided somewhere completely different. In addition, we are at serious risk of creating a two-tier countryside – isolated pockets of nature reserves far from the infrastructure and housing which results in destruction of habitat in the first place. The British public loves nature[3] and wants the government to do more, not less to protect it.
Our own #TeamBat #TeamNewt campaign will be seeking to raise awareness of these issues. Everyone should write to their MP immediately. We have a national celebration of nature planned on May 24th. And we will be launching a petition to put nature first in the Planning & Infrastructure Bill.”
Chris Packham, environmental campaigner and TV presenter, said, “This is a giant nail in the coffin for nature. Here we are, in the middle of a biodiversity crisis, with habitats and species already in peril, when the government proposes removing protections for species and giving developers carte blanche to plunder habitats, in return for payments. Not only will this allow destruction of the environment, but there is no guarantee that the proposed nature restoration will work. Government’s proposals are not based on evidence and will lead to a double risk of habitats being ripped up but compensatory nature not being delivered.”
Caroline Lucas, environmental campaigner, said, “We are one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with ongoing rapid decline in our wildlife, with more than a quarter of mammals in Britain now facing extinction. We need a healthy natural world if we are to have any chance of tackling the climate emergency. Instead, already the government has rejected the Climate and Nature Bill and now these new changes place our remaining nature in peril. Without nature, our own wellbeing and survival is at risk.”
[1] Trailed through a series of Planning Reform Working Papers – all our responses are here
[2] You can see responses from a number of ecologists to the Nature & Development Working Paper here
[3] Our own polling in December showed strong support amongst voters of all parties for government to prioritise nature.
Click here for link to the Planning & Infrastructure Bill
|
February 11th, 2025
CPA asks everyone to join the #TeamBat #TeamNewt campaign
|
The government has recently used some very aggressive rhetoric about bats and newts being the blockers to many aspects of growth and planning. We have responded with the #TeamBat #TeamNewt campaign as we do not believe that the government is correct and that in any event, these animals along with all of nature, need our protection.
We're planning a National #TeamBat #TeamNewt Day on 24th May. And on X we're posting a 100 days of countdown with nature based activities for each day.
Watch this space for plans for the 24th May!
We're planning a National #TeamBat #TeamNewt Day on 24th May. And on X we're posting a 100 days of countdown with nature based activities for each day.
Watch this space for plans for the 24th May!
Click here to buy T-shirts, caps and badges
|
January 22nd, 2025
CPA asks government to
'Make Nature a Stakeholder' |
Community Planning Alliance responded to the government's proposals to tear up environmental regulations that might stand in the way of building in their pursuit of growth.
Nature and biodiversity are not just a nice-to-have, nor can you save the world from climate change by tearing up habitats for 'green projects'. Nature is fundamental for our, our children's and our grand-children's survival and must become a formal stakeholder in policy decisions.
Growth fanaticism will end in tears, and it is a worry that instead of protecting existing biodiversity, the big environmental organisations may roll-over at the scent of money for creating new habitats in other places unrelated to the site of development.
Nature and biodiversity are not just a nice-to-have, nor can you save the world from climate change by tearing up habitats for 'green projects'. Nature is fundamental for our, our children's and our grand-children's survival and must become a formal stakeholder in policy decisions.
Growth fanaticism will end in tears, and it is a worry that instead of protecting existing biodiversity, the big environmental organisations may roll-over at the scent of money for creating new habitats in other places unrelated to the site of development.
Click here for our summary paper
