Planning review deals 'devastating' blow to Britain's Green Belt

Local councils should be cut out of major planning decisions to enable projects to be pushed through quickly even if local people object, a government report suggests.

The proposal would accelerate decisions on plans for nuclear power stations, the expansion of Heathrow and Stansted airports and the widening of the M6, but it will be seen as a frontal attack on local democracy.

The recommendations by the Bank of England economist Kate Barker - which have a high chance of becoming government policy - delighted builders, estate agents and those in the construction industry. But green groups including Friends of the Earth were horrified by the threatened loss of local control over the environment.

Ms Barker echoed a call made by Sir Rod Eddington, in his recent report on the future of transport, for a new high-powered Planning Commission for England to deal with major construction projects, following complaints that the current system is too slow.

At a press conference in the Treasury yesterday, she admitted these projects will often be pushed through despite local objections.

"We know these are the kind of developments that communities, at first sight, are not likely to welcome near them," she said.

"Equally, it is in the national interest that these are proposed and provided somewhere."

Her report, commissioned by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, also called for a relaxation of the rules governing green-belt land to allow thousands of new homes and shops where development has been forbidden. Ms Barker said much of the green belt is actually "low-value agricultural land, with little landscape quality and limited public access".

Her report also called for it to be made easier to build out-of-town shopping centres and the taxation of land-owners who failed to develop derelict or vacant sites.

Householders who want to make relatively minor changes, for example a loft extension, should be allowed to go ahead without applying for permission, if they have a signed agreement with their neighbours.

Steward Baseley, chief executive of the Housebuilders' Federation, said: "The amount of land coming through the planning system annually for residential development has fallen by some 10 per cent and the supply of new housing is falling short of needs by some 50,000 each year."

Faraz Baber, of the British Property Federation, said: "We are delighted about the growing recognition of the need to rethink how the planning system can deliver major projects in a timely manner."

But Friends of the Earth warned that the report could have a " devastating" impact on the environment and local democracy. Their planning adviser, Hugh Ellis, said: "Local communities will be the big loser if the Barker review is implemented. Barker's vision of uncontrolled development will mean communities have little or no say in how their local area is developed."

Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation, described the proposal as "a charter for clone towns, wildly out of touch with what people want". He said: "This is a throwback to the bad old days of the 1980s when the wishes of local people and their councillors were swept aside in favour of what the supermarkets wanted."

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, said: "The top-down, regionally driven approach of John Prescott and Gordon Brown has led to the worst of all worlds: the wishes of local communities ignored and reams of red tape for developers."

Barker proposals

* A new national body to decide on major planning projects, such as airports, nuclear power stations and the widening of motorways.

* Local authorities to allow more building on Green-Belt boundaries.

* A one-off tax on profits from the development of greenfield sites after 2008.

* Planning system to resume presumption in favour, so applications should be approved unless there are a series of strong social or environmental reasons against development.