SWINDON Borough Council's Labour group added their voice to concerns over the government's planning proposals.

Environment spokesman Jane Milner-Barry is particularly worried about the proposal to make it easier to build private houses without a proportion of a new development being for affordable rent – which is classed as 80 per cent of the market rate.

Coun Milner-Barry will put forward a motion to the full council meeting tomorrow night.

It says: “This council notes the government blames the planning system for a lack of homes and presents plans to 'tear it down and start again'.

“This council is concerned that the proposals seek to reduce or remove the right of residents to have their say on applications in their communities, grant automatic rights for developers to build on land identified as ‘for growth’, remove Section 106 payments for infrastructure and replace them with a national levy which could be used for any purpose, delay the requirement to build zero-carbon homes and weaken the environmental assessment process.”

Coun Milner-Barry’s motion disputes the suggestion that the current planning system hampers the building of houses.

It says: “The vast majority of planning applications are given the go-ahead by local authority planning committees, with permission granted to around nine out of 10 applications.”

She points out any delays are as likely to be due to builders not being willing to get on with work.

“According to the Local Government Association, there are existing planning permissions for more than one million homes that have not yet been started,” Coun Milner-Barry added.

Coun Milner-Barry also asks the council itself to ensure where houses are built on commercial sites, or offices are converted to houses – which no longer needs formal approval from councils – at least 35 per cent of them are affordable.

In asking the council to raise these issues with the government, she says its proposals are opposed by bodies such as the Local Government Association, the Royal Institute for British Architects and the Town and Country Planning Association.

She added: “The Wildlife Trusts state that the proposed zoning system will accelerate the decline of British wildlife.”

The motion will be debated and voted on tomorrow evening in a meeting starting at 7pm.

A link will be provided to allow the public to attend.