54% of the British public concerned that removing planning permission will worsen quality of their neighbourhood
Over half (54%) of the British public believe that the Government’s plans to remove the need for planning permission for house and building extensions would mean the quality of the design of their neighbourhood would get worse, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
- 54% of respondents think the quality of the design of buildings and houses in their neighbourhood would get worse
- 25% say it would remain the same
- Only 7% think that it will get better
Losing influence
In addition to concerns over design quality, the poll also revealed that half of respondents are worried that under the Government proposed planning reforms they would lose their influence over new extensions in their local area.
- 31% said they were ‘fairly worried’ about losing influence under the new regime, while 20% of respondents said they were ‘very worried’
- 30% said they were ‘not very worried about losing influence, and 10% were not worried at all
Commenting on the poll results, RIBA Past President and Chair of the RIBA Planning Group, Ruth Reed said: “We agree that there is a need to reduce the red tape in our current planning system but as the British public have clearly expressed, this policy change must be more carefully considered to ensure we make our neighbourhoods better not worse.”
