Determining whether a proposed new development is likely to be 'sustainable': some problems of the historic built environment

• Published in: Environmental law and management 2012-01, Vol.24 (3), p.103-113
• Main Authors: Corkindale, J, Thaci, K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1067-6058

In the wake of the Brundtland report, super(1) published in 1987, planning policy guidance in the UK was revised 'in the light of sustainable development'. Section 73 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 was also introduced to establish a requirement for regional and local planning bodies to exercise their functions 'with the objective of contributing to the achievement of sustainable development'. The current administration in the UK is replacing these by a non-statutory 'presumption in favour of sustainable development', which is included in its new, streamlined National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). super(2) There has been considerable debate as to whether this represents a step towards or away from 'sustainable development'. super(3) In our view this debate is largely sterile. The reason is, quite simply, the same as the one put forward by the (then) Department of the Environment in 1988: without an analytical apparatus to enable one to determine whether one is, in fact, achieving sustainable development or not, a generalised policy commitment to sustainable development becomes largely meaningless. super(4) Regrettably, this observation remains as much to the point, certainly in relation to the UK's planning policy, as it was then.