Planning for the future? The future of the local planning system

by Andy Yuille, CPRE

On our 'perspectives' page for October, CPRE's NW Regional Policy Officer, Andy Yuille, discusses the changing scene as far as planning is concerned and sets out what is needed now.

The Coalition Government made plain from the start their intention to conduct a major overhaul of the planning system. They want to return power to the people, strip out needless bureaucracy and delays, and make the whole system more accountable, efficient and transparent. These are all very worthwhile aims.

However, we have yet to see whether their actions will actually achieve any of these aims. There is very little evidence yet of a coherent plan to deliver them, but more should emerge with White Papers on localism and sub-national economic growth in the autumn. What we have seen so far is a stripping away of the old, but unfortunately without anything sufficiently well thought out to replace it. So in a nutshell:

• Regional Strategies have been revoked, and the basis for making regional strategies will be abolished through the Localism Bill.
• Powers for planning and housing will be 'returned' to local authorities.
• New, simplified local plans will be the basis for making all planning decisions, based on 'modules' developed at neighbourhood levels by communities themselves.
• National Planning Policy Statements and Guidance Notes will be replaced by a streamlined National Planning Framework

We have been told that the 'new' planning system will be based on the proposals set out in the Conservatives 'Open Source Planning' paper, published while they were in opposition. But quite how these principles will translate into a workable system on the ground has yet to be revealed. The following are some of the key points that I think need to be considered to ensure that we have a planning system that is fit for purpose and works in the public interest:-

1. Maintain a strategic overview Mediating differing views is an important function of strategic planning. Neighbouring local authorities will no doubt have a variety of priorities and a strategic approach is necessary to ensure consideration is given to settlement patterns, how places work together, Green Belt protection, whole ecosystems, the relationship between urban regeneration and Greenfield development, and issues such as retail hierarchies. This cannot be done at the local level alone, and so a strategic overview is required between the very local and the national level.

The Government has suggested that Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs - groupings of local authorities and businesses based on 'functional economic areas') could undertake a strategic planning role to achieve their aim of promoting economic growth. Strategic planning needs to integrate environmental, social and economic considerations and this can only be done by a transparent process that fully involves local communities and relevant expert stakeholders. If LEPs are to fulfil a role in strategic planning, their remit will have to be wider than just delivering economic growth.

Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) faced significant opposition from local people, MPs and local authorities because they imposed housing targets on local areas. However, the RSS in the North West managed to achieve a good balance between social, economic and environmental priorities, through the statutory process of consultation and Examination in Public. It included some strong policy directions that served to protect the environment and ensure a more sustainable approach was taken to development that have now been lost.

Here in the North West, work done on the Regional Strategy that would have replaced the RSS (had the Government not swept away all things regional) has been carried forwards into "Future North West: our shared priorities", a 'high level strategic framework' intended to guide action by the public, private and voluntary sectors. It is open for comment until 8th October at http://www.nwda.co.uk/media-library/publications/strategy/future-north-west-interim.aspx. It will be a non-statutory document and any influence it has will depend entirely on the buy-in it has from a wide range of players across the region. However, it does make a clear and detailed statement about the need for all development to respect environmental limits and contains some very positive environmental provisions. The challenge now will be to ensure that these are taken on board at a local level.

Strategic planning should not impose things on the local level, but rather provide a vehicle for local authorities and other interested parties to discuss, and reach agreement on, issues that have impacts across boundaries. Economic, environmental and social factors should be given equal weight so that the approach taken is sustainable, and delivers a better quality of life for communities. It should not be focused on economic growth at any cost.

Local people and public interest groups should be empowered to engage in planning structures and decision-making processes, and those involved in strategic planning must place significant emphasis on enabling local people to participate fully in planning processes.

2. Simplify local plans but ensure they are meaningful A key aim for Government is to make local plans simpler. However, the reforms, especially the stripping away of the regional tier, will make local plans even more important as a key tool for protecting and enhancing the environment. It is therefore vitally important that the policies within local plans are detailed enough to shape development proposals and provide a clear steer for decision-makers about the appropriate type, location, scale etc of new development.

It has been proposed that under the localised system the starting point for the development of local plans will be 'modules' developed by neighbourhoods. These modules will be incorporated into the final plan unless there are strong grounds for modifying them. Local authorities will act as facilitators, helping neighbourhoods to develop their visions and brokering a rational and coherent overall local plan.

Although much greater community involvement in the planning system is welcome, in practice this seems very likely to make things more complicated, not simpler! It will also take longer and require more resources than are currently available to most planning departments - and this in a time of massive cuts to public services, especially 'back room' functions like planning. I've been involved in the development of a number of LDF documents in Lancaster, and the resource that the council already puts into this is considerable. To get the amount and quality of input across every neighbourhood in the Lancaster (and how big is a neighbourhood, anyway?), let alone the rest of the urban areas in Morecambe and Heysham, the market towns and the rural areas, and then to pull all that together into a coherent but simple whole, seems to me a virtually impossible task.

The planning system deals with, and mediates, conflict. It is unlikely that local communities will all reach a complete consensus on the detailed contents of neighbourhood and local plans, so the process by which plans are developed cannot be too simplistic.

3. A national policy framework that requires land to be used efficiently Local plans will be developed within the parameters of a new National Planning Framework, which will set out the economic and environmental priorities for the country. This document will be vital to ensure that the responsibility of the planning system, to strike a balance between addressing local concerns and facilitating development that is in the wider public interest, and balancing and integrating social, economic and environmental priorities, is fulfilled. The detail of the Framework will be vitally important in shaping the future of development across the country.

There is currently a large volume of national planning policy and so I sympathise with the decision to streamline it. The focus for the development of the new Framework should not be on simply keeping the document short, however, but rather it should be on ensuring that national priorities are set out at a level of detail that is of practical use to local plan-makers.

The commitment in the Coalition Programme that Green Belt, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other environmental protections will be maintained is very welcome. However, it will also be important to continue to maintain and enhance landscape character and biodiversity outside of designated areas in the 'everyday' countryside that people value so highly - the danger is that a "streamlined" national framework may lead to a planning free-for-all in these areas.

The Framework should also emphasise the need for land to be used efficiently. Priorities should therefore include urban regeneration, the protection of soil as a resource and the protection of land of high agricultural value. In order to do this the Framework will require a sequential and 'Brownfield first' approach to be taken for all kinds of development - this is important nationwide, but particularly so in the North West where we have the highest proportion of both brownfield land and empty homes.

4. Greater weight for Parish Plans and Village Design Statements Parish and Town councils are well placed to gather and consider the views of local people and develop plans that will respond to the local population's need. The development of Parish Plans and Village Design Statements should be the basis of neighbourhood modules, with these plans given statutory status in the planning system.

Although the views of local people should be a starting point for the development of local plans it is not realistic to suggest that these modules should only consider the concerns of neighbourhood residents. Local plans will still need to be based on evidence, including information about the state and capacity of the local environment. So, discussions with local people must be framed within the context of evidence and broader strategic goals.

5. Re-balance the appeals process Planning reform should include the introduction of a limited right of appeal for the public so they can challenge approval of proposals that are not in line with local plan policies. The current system, whereby only the applicant has a right of appeal, is skewed towards the interests of the applicant. A new limited right of appeal for interested local people would re-balance the planning system, empower communities, and improve the quality of planning decisions by ensuring that decisions to grant permission as well as to refuse it must be capable of being justified with reference to the local plan.

6. Encourage and reward place-shaping The planning system should enable the delivery of development that meets the needs of local people and maintains and enhances the distinctiveness and character of neighbourhoods. Offering financial incentives to local authorities to encourage them to grant planning permission for housing developments could result in local authorities focusing on delivering more new homes, but not necessarily high quality, appropriately located homes that meet the needs of local people. And with big cuts in council budgets, allowing new, but inappropriate development may be the only way they can find to finance basic services. Incentives should be for delivering on the priorities set out in the local plan, not just for numbers of units of housing.