Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: Housing, planning and public trust

Housing, planning and public trust 

For the decade that I have been involved in politics, one of the most consistent concerns has been about  housing and planning. This year in particular there is a growing concern about what the Government’s latest planning changes means for towns and villages across Mid Sussex.

Last week, additional development sites were published after the Planning Inspectorate insisted that Mid Sussex take on a significant proportion of Crawley’s unmet housing need, alongside further unmet need from Brighton and Hove.

I know that some people in Mid Sussex do not think that we need to build houses. I disagree with them. I have met the people who have been served no fault eviction notices, I have doorknocked on the houses where grown up children live alongside their parents because they cannot afford to move out, and I know that there are about two thousand Mid Sussex families on the waiting list for social housing, often living in cramped or unsuitable accommodation. We desperately need genuinely affordable housing. For those  young people, for those growing families, and for people on modest incomes. People should not be priced out of living in the communities where they grew up. 

For many years Mid Sussex has done its bit, consistently building more than 1,000 homes a year across the District, with around 30% of them classed as affordable* homes. Mid Sussex District Council has consistently worked to meet the housing targets it has been set whilst many other parts of the country have struggled to do so. That is why I am so frustrated by what is now happening. The concern I hear locally is not simply about the number of homes. It is about whether development is being planned properly, whether infrastructure can cope, and whether local communities still have any meaningful say in shaping the places where they live.

The new Labour government came in in July 2024 and changed the planning rules. If they had not done this, it is very likely that Mid Sussex’s District Plan would already have been adopted. That would have provided clearer protections against speculative development, whilst still delivering new housing through a locally-led and democratically examined plan.

Instead, the changes have created a great deal of uncertainty. Sites previously rejected by locally elected councillors may now be approved through the appeals process, and communities are understandably asking whether local decision-making still carries weight.

Alongside this sits another issue that simply cannot be ignored: water infrastructure.

The hosepipe bans of 2025-26 demonstrated how serious water stress already is across our part of the South East. East Grinstead experienced a prolonged supply outage in January, and in the south of the District burst pipes meant that schools had to close and homes and businesses were without fresh water. Confidence in our local water infrastructure has understandably been shaken.

So when people see proposals for thousands more homes, they ask a reasonable question: can the infrastructure actually support this growth? These are not anti-development concerns, they are practical concerns.

I firmly believe we can build the homes we need without having to compromise on good design, proper infrastructure, environmental responsibility, and meaningful local accountability. In fact, if public confidence in housebuilding is to be maintained, those things are essential.

When development feels imposed rather than planned with communities, trust in the whole system begins to erode.

That is why I have written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Steve Reed to ask what steps the government will now take to restore confidence in the planning process and ensure that areas like Mid Sussex, which have been working hard to meet housing need responsibly, are not penalised by constant policy changes and unrealistic assumptions about infrastructure capacity.

Readers will have a wide variety of views on this, but I know that people care deeply about preserving what is special about our towns and villages while ensuring future generations can still afford to live here.

Those two goals should not be in conflict, a responsible development sector and whoever is in government ought to recognise that.

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

Best wishes,
Alison

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*Notwithstanding that the definition of what is an ‘affordable’ home leaves much to be desired.