http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/taxandtheenvironment/7806238/Bin-taxes-and-planning-laws-to-be-ditched-by-Coalition.html
A raft of Labour laws which have been criticised for penalising Middle England will be consigned to the scrap heap by the new Government this week.
Bin taxes will be ditched, along with laws allowing developers to build on back gardens, as the Coalition embarks on a bonfire of "meddling" legislation. Ministers will say they are scrapping controversial Labour proposals to allow local authorities to charge for household rubbish collections or fine those who fail to cut their waste. And in a major review of planning law, back gardens will no longer be classified as "brownfield" land which can be built on. The Government will also announce that it is getting rid of a requirement on builders to squeeze more smaller homes onto new housing developments, after complaints that the rule leads to overcrowding. The shake-up follows years of campaigns, including one in this newspaper against proposed refuse taxes, and is clearly aimed at pacifying core Conservative voters.
In the first of the announcements tomorrow, Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, will say he is scrapping Labour plans to introduce pay-as-you-throw rubbish schemes.
Local authorities will be told to end pilot schemes set up by the previous administration to penalise people for the amount of rubbish they throw away. The new Government will adopt a "carrot" rather than a "stick" approach, seeking to encourage recycling through measures such as cuts in council tax bills or giving shopping vouchers to residents who meet recycling targets. In a further attempt to reach out to middle class families, Greg Clark, the minister for decentralisation, will on Wednesday outline plans to end cluttering of leafy residential areas by abolishing Labour's "minimum density targets" for house building.
Rules currently stipulate that at least 30 homes are built on every hectare of developed land. This makes it almost impossible for large-scale developers to win planning permission to build bigger homes and gardens. In the same space that would have been allowed for one house in the 1980s, builders are now being required to build three. Current rules also state that at least 25 per cent of the homes in each new luxury housing development must be "affordable", and proposed developments often do not get the go ahead unless a block of budget flats is added onto the site. The abolition of the density targets will end cluttering, ill-thought-out "affordable" high rises and homes which are too small, campaigners say.
