Entec
Bulletin
Planning White Paper
Is Planning Frustrating Major Schemes?
Some 60 years ago the Town and Country Planning Act (1947) became law. It was introduced by the Attlee government and laid the foundations for the current planning system. Each decade has brought different challenges starting with the post war plan-led reconstruction, then 1960s modernist/brutalist architecture, and the basic tenets of the Act have stood the test of time. Probably best known is the introduction of green belts in the 1950s which have prevented urban sprawl and remain intact today. The 1980s represented a diminished role for planning as the free market led the way with out of town shopping centres, vast office complexes and development corporations assuming planning controls in their areas. It is only now that we are building more homes than the previous peak in 1990 at the end of those boom years.
During the late 1990s and into the new millennium, the push to develop centrally-located brownfield land really took hold – 56% of homes were on brownfield land in 1997 and 75% in 2007, but this also coincided with unprecedented immigration and formation of single-person households. Meanwhile, the economy took off and premises were needed to feed it. Planning is being asked to deliver quicker and better and is increasingly perceived as a barrier to growth by the government and others - the very protracted Heathrow T5 Inquiry is often cited as evidence.
The CBI believes that the balance is wrong and that national needs are frequently overridden by important but lesser local concerns. It believes that the planning system has failed to keep pace with the challenges of the 21st century, citing refusals of or delays to wind farms and recycling facilities as good examples. Certainly Entec has been involved in all three of these examples and experienced the protracted nature of the planning process. Just recently Entec secured planning permission for a sympathetic redevelopment of an NHS hospital site with a registered garden in Northumberland, but only after a 5 year planning battle, numerous technical assessments/surveys and a public inquiry, despite having the support of the local authority and parish council throughout.
Conversely, environmental groups believe that any relaxation of planning rules will speed up climate change and make Britain a more unequal society. They suggest that consultation and scrutiny is paramount. Consequently in 2007 the planning profession finds itself promoting sustainable development, worried about climate change and yet needing to deliver an unprecedented level of growth particularly in southern England. It is also confronted with infrastructure that is struggling to cope (utilities, roads, railways flood defences etc) and a whole generation of young people priced out of the housing market.
So, not content with the previous fundamental review of the planning system just a couple of years ago, the government has published a new Planning White Paper to try once again to address the above. The green belt policy is still recognised as a success and will not be changed, but there are three significant proposals of note:
| 1 | Reforms on how we take decisions on nationally significant infrastructure projects - including energy, waste, waste-water and transport - responding to the challenges of economic globalisation and climate change. Decisions would be taken by the Infrastructure Planning Commission. |
| 2 | Produce national policy statements for key infrastructure sectors to clarify government policy, provide a clearer strategic framework for sustainable development, and remove a source of delay from inquiries. |
| 3 | It also proposes further reforms to the town and country planning system, building on the recent improvements to make it more efficient and more responsive. This largely relates to the extension of permitted development rights for households and business (i.e. planning permission is not required) thus removing delays and freeing up planning officers to deal with more complex cases. Entec has already advised Communities & Local Government and the Planning Inspectorate on domestic micro generation and suggested extensions to permitted development rights. |
The government proposes to replace the many and various consent regimes for key national infrastructure with a new system that will enable it to take decisions on infrastructure in a way that is timely, efficient and predictable, and which it believes will improve the accountability of the system, the transparency of decisions, and the ability of the public and communities to participate effectively in them. A new Infrastructure Planning Commission will make the decisions and consultants such as Entec will work with applicants and the Commission’s Secretariat to an agreed timetable and standard. The idea of consulting the local planning authorities, public and the various statutory consultees before submission is not actually new and has been going on (as good practice) for some time now. Likewise comprehensive submissions with perhaps 10 or more supporting statements are now commonplace. Hence the success or otherwise of such a Commission will be judged by how it works in practice, and how it deals with registration and then the comments of the various stakeholders.
The government intends to authorise the Infrastructure Planning Commission, under this revised regime, to grant a unified consent, confer powers and amend legislation, necessary to implement nationally significant infrastructure projects. This is a radical proposal cutting across consent regimes and hence a significant undertaking, but will largely depend upon the competency of the Commission and its Secretariat which will require the diverse skill base currently enjoyed by some larger councils, consultancies and their associates.
The reasons for change are well understood, but as is so often the case in planning, genuine stakeholder engagement and effective service delivery are the keys to a system which accounts for and meets the needs of all concerned.
Click here to load the Entec home page