Roberta Blackman-Woods MP, Shadow Minster for Local Government and Housing, reacting to the Government’s new “Criteria for Designation”, said today:

“It’s really disappointing that once again the Government are pointing to the planning system as the explanation for their failure to build the houses they promised.

“The Minister himself points out in his statement that the existing designation system is working well, so why put additional pressure on already overstretched planning departments with these changes?

“It’s high time that the Government recognised how important the planning system is in delivering developments that are well planned, in the right place and supported by the infrastructure they need. And key to that is giving local planning departments proper funding and resources so they can do their jobs.

“The Government has already admitted that at the current rate they are not going to hit their target of 1 million homes over the Parliament, and blaming the planning system is not the answer to their abject failure to deliver.”