Planning guidelines 'enormously simplified', says minister

Ministers have said that new planning guidelines for England will protect the countryside and boost jobs, but opponents have warned of "a building free-for-all".

The draft version of the new guidelines reduced the existing 1,300-page document to 52 pages, and the final booklet is just 50 pages long.

Speaking to the BBC, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles insisted that it would only be easier to build "in the right places".

He argued that an "enormously simplified process" would help planning decisions to be made more quickly.