Sustainable Communities
Promoting sustainable developments within the new planning framework, and contributing to the social and economic growth of communities, are a fundamental objective for HLM in the coming years.
The priority of creating sustainable communities lies at the heart of the Government's drive for reform of the planning system. This initiative seeks to integrate the ideals of sustainable development into the system, and to generate a proactive approach to planning and development that involves the wider community as well as the local authority, the landowner and the developer.
This planning reform is intended to make land more available for development in keeping with local economic, social and environmental objectives, and for this to make a real contribution to a region's controlled sustainable growth. Whilst achieving this growth, it is essential that an area's natural and historic environment is retained and that good design principles are employed throughout.