Local planning issues often fill my postbag and can be a source of significant concern to local residents affected by an application and rightly so.

Planning issues are at the heart of our communities, permitting the very homes we live in, the schools our children go to, the hospital we visit and the roads that take us there. That is why reforming the way our outdated and bureaucratic planning system works is so important. Many people complain to me that it is not currently delivering for the people locally that use it or the communities that need good homes to live in. 

Most people recognise that we need to build more houses, especially affordable homes, across the country. In Shropshire sadly many young families are forced into renting for longer than they want to and struggle to find suitable homes when they can afford a mortgage. But that also means we need to build the right homes in the right places.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill which finished its passage through the Commons before Christmas, recognises that it is communities themselves who are best placed to make decisions on local development. The Bill will modernise the planning system for the 21st century and give residents a louder voice to ensure that development reflects community preferences. Under the reformed system, local plans will be given more weight and the plan making process will be sped up.

This will not only give communities like ours in South Shropshire more certainty that the right homes will be built in the right places but will also give more assurance that areas of environmental importance will be respected in decisions on planning applications and appeals and crucially, will remove centrally imposed house building targets.

The legislation puts communities at its heart. It will introduce a requirement for local planning authorities to produce design codes for their areas, which will have full weight in planning decision making. Digitising the planning system will make it easier for communities to access the system and help groups typically underrepresented in planning decisions to make their voices heard in their area. This compliments ongoing pilots which are testing new digital initiatives, such as online 3D maps and QR code systems to enable residents to interact with the system in new ways.

A new Infrastructure Levy will also be introduced to help fund the schools, GP surgeries and road improvements needed, which has been a regular concern in local planning applications in South Shropshire. The levy will be set locally to allow Shropshire Council to tailor it to our local circumstances. There will be a consultation on the workings of this new levy, which I was pleased to have confirmed will also be available to ensure water supply and treatment improvements can benefit.

The Government remains wholeheartedly committed to the benefits of neighbourhood planning. The new Bill will strengthen neighbourhood planning and give these plans greater weight in planning decisions. The legislation will also help even more people to get involved in neighbourhood planning by introducing a new tool for parish councils and neighbourhood forums called a neighbourhood priorities statement. This will allow communities to identify priorities and preferences for their area which the local authority will be obliged to take into account when preparing its local plan. 

It is our neighbourhoods that feel the impact of planning most immediately. I am hopeful that these reforms will genuinely empower people from all backgrounds to get more involved in decisions that shape where we live.