Latest news
NT criticises proposed planning reforms
The National Trust (NT) has warned that the government's proposed planning reforms may lead to "unchecked and damaging" development of the UK's undesignated countryside.
In response to the launch of the draft National Planning Policy Framework, the NT said that the government had focussed to much on economic growth rather than wider public benefit. The trust has also raised concerns that the reforms would end a principle established around 70 years ago that the existing system could preserve the UK's "most special" landscapes.
NT director-general Dame Fiona Reynolds said: "Weakening protection now risks a return to the threat of sprawl and uncontrolled development that so dominated public debate in the 1930s. "Development that works must pass a triple bottom line test - by showing that it meets the needs of people and the environment as well as the economy."
Image: Len Green/shutterstock.com