The government’s planning guidance notes set out the policy framework within which local planning authorities are required to draw up their development plans. Regional and local planning is usually the responsibility of a locally elected authority. There are different systems of local government across England. In the shire areas of England, 34 county councils prepare structural plans for the whole of their area. Structural plans are written statements giving a series of general countywide policies illustrated by a diagrammatic map. The unscaled map is not intended to give detailed location of proposals. The structural plan focuses on key strategic issues. There are also 46 unitary councils in former shire areas. These will be required to work with adjoining county councils to prepare a Joint Structural Plan (JSP), as well as prepare their own local plan. The city of Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire County Council are examples of two authorities operating a JSP.
238 district councils prepare a local plan for their area. Local plans are intended to add substance to the structural plan. They consist of a written, more detailed statement, accompanied by an ordnance survey based plan. The local plan must conform to the structural plan before the county council approves it. In larger cities, a single council provides most services. In London and metropolitan areas, these councils will prepare a Unitary Development Plan (UDP) for their area. This combines both the strategic aspects of the structural plan and the site-specific detail of the local plan. These systems are also under review, with county councils and district involvement due to be replaced by Local Development Frameworks (LDFs). National park authorities, rather than the district councils, have local planning powers.
Evidence so far confirms that the planning system is indeed complex, with 3 tiers of bureaucracy each producing their own sets of plans, which may or may not follow national planning guidance. Using the word ‘guidance’ may suggest several interpretations evolving from the same guidance source.
In December 2001, the government published a green paper, ‘Delivering a Fundamental Change’. The subsequent policy statement, ‘Sustainable Communities – Delivering Through Planning’, sets out the government’s plans for reform of the planning system in the light of responses to the green paper. These papers focus on a 2-tier approach. Key areas of concern are:
Complexity – the planning system is a multi-tiered structure operating at central government, regional and local levels, often producing plans which are out of date and inconsistent with national planning guidance, which is in itself unfocused. Rules on development are often unclear; some development plans need planning consent, others do not.
Speed and predictability – over 90% of councils do not meet their target, 80% of planning applications should be decided within 8 weeks. Applications lack predictability because the criteria, on which they are judged, are not transparent. The current plan led system was introduced in 1991, although some authorities have yet to put their plan in place, mainly due to plans being time consuming and costly to produce and the appeals system being slow, taking from 17 – 31 weeks to resolve an appeal.
Customer focus and standards – user-friendly, straightforward advice is hard to find when submitting plans. Once these plans have been submitted, keeping track of their progress is extremely difficult. Many local planning departments are inundated with housing applicants, thus leaving less time to spend on complex industrial/commercial plans. It is evident that there is a skill and resource shortage; many elected councillors do not have the relevant training.
Enforcement - People avoiding planning controls undermine confidence in the system; effective action needs to be taken to restore confidence.
The recommendations in these consultation papers have led to the publication of ‘The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill’, which will take these proposals forward, and is expected to come into force by April 2004. This bill aims to speed up the planning system and proposes to increase the predictability of planning decisions; RSSs will replace RPGs. Local plans, unitary development plans and structural plans will be replaced by LDFs; the Secretary of State will be given new powers with major infrastructure projects.
Councils will not be undertaking work on the LDFs until next year. Initially, councils will prepare a local development scheme that will set out the contents of the LDF. Councils will also be required to prepare a statement of community involvement setting up a citizen’s panel and the like.
England’s Regional Development Agencies have been directly involved in the formulation of the planning green paper and have played an active role during the consultation period. There are 9 RDAs throughout the country; they operate as Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB). The government’s definition of a NDPB is, ‘a body which has a role in the process of national government, but is not a government department or part of one, and accordingly operates to a greater or lesser extent at arms length for ministers’. The RDA in London differs slightly as it is accountable to the Mayor of London, not government ministers.
‘Regional development agencies RDAs in England grew out of the work completed before the 1997 general Election by the regional policy commission. Following the general election, the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 provided for the establishment of nine RDAs in England. Eight of the nine RDAs were formally established on 1st April 1999, with the London development agency (LDA) being established on 3rd July 2000. The Government announced an increased emphasis on the RDAs’ role as strategic drivers of regional economic development following the 2000 spending review. Responsibility for sponsorship of the RDAs moved from the former DETR to the DTI following the 2001 General Election.’(1) (Extract from Regional Development Agencies Research paper 02/50 22nd August 2002).
RDAs are poised to take over the role of county councils; councils will take on a consultation role with their planning power transferred to regional chambers. RDAs have been given greater involvement in housing and planning decisions, key areas which are essential to the successful physical and economic regeneration of the English regions and which will enable a more integrated approach to regeneration. It is to be noted that RDAs are not planning authorities; their role is to co-ordinate regional economic development. However, they are expected both to feed into RPGs and to be informed by RPGs. RPGs are the key planning guidance for each region, produced at present by the regional planning body (RPB) and play a crucial role in defining the spatial strategy for each region. The present government is now promoting the importance of the Regional Development Agencies as a more effective means of strategic planning control than that provided by the existing councils.
RDAs work closely alongside Regional Chambers/Regional Assemblies, as they are now known. The ‘Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act’ received royal accent on 8th May 2003, giving chambers the responsibility to act as regional planning bodies for the new systems of RSS.
It is difficult to make assumptions about RDAs. The planning system is currently under radical reform and there is no guarantee that these changes will become absolute. It appears that RDAs will remove a basic planning need, that of local consultation. The conservative government in the 1980’s planned reforms similar to those suggested by the current labour government. ‘The last serious attempt to reform the system took place during the 1980s when Mrs Thatcher’s governments sought to ‘roll back’ planning as part of a general effort to ‘roll back’ the welfare state. Conservative governments in the latter half of the 1980s took some tentative steps to free up planning regulation so that market forces could enjoy greater play in development processes. However, these steps, tentative though they were, provoked a furious backlash amongst residents of the shire counties in southern England.’(2) . I fear that this government will ignore such challenges and proceed with these reforms at whatever cost.
Sir Jeremy Beecham also observes, ‘In those regions that do not opt for an elected regional assembly, control of planning will be removed from directly elected county councils and handed to indirectly elected/appointed regional planning bodies. A majority of the district and unitary authorities who will run the resultant ‘local’ planning service feel that the distance between the local and regional level will make it difficult for local residents to influence regional planning policy. So planning powers will be transferred from elected local authorities to unelected regional bodies. These powers will stay with these quangos unless regions opt for an elected regional assembly.’(3) www.lga.gov.uk. New localism or new centralism? planning and the regions
The present system arguably comprises a needlessly complex system of overlapping controls, serving us well for over 50 years. With sustainable development at its core, it has and will protect our future generations’ needs. It is my opinion that the proposed new system will not fair so well in the future. The government intends to implement business zones, seemingly a glorified version of the 1980s Enterprise Zones, which have not been a long-term nationwide success. The acceleration of development must have an impact on stability! The current system is far from perfect and there are suggestions that it can be improved without the need for radical reform, for instance, increasing the cost of planning applications, putting an end to twin tracking, increased and more effective enforcement procedures, to name but a few. It is essential that the promotion of sustainable development is central to the planning system. The reforms as they stand are preoccupied with regional and local guidance.
Bibliography
Cullingworth J B and Nadin V Town and Country Planning in the UK (13th edition)
Green paper, Delivering a Fundamental Change
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/documents/page/odpm_plan_605832.hcsp
Sustainable Communities – Delivering Through Planning
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/documents/page/odpm_plan_605857.hcsp
DETR Planning Policy Guidance Note 1 General Policy and Principles
ODPM Planning Policy Guidance Note 11 Regional Planning
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/ documents/pdf/odpm_plan_pdf_606926.pdf
ODPM Planning Policy Guidance Note12 Development Plans.
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/ documents/source/odpm_plan_source_606929.doc
ODPM .
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/
documents/source/odpm_plan_source_605857.doc
ODPM The Relationships between Community Strategies and Local Development Frameworks Final Report October 2003.
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/ documents/page/odpm_plan_024497.pdf
ODPM The Town and Country Planning GDPO 2003 (Accompanies SI 2003/2047)
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/ documents/source/odpm_plan_source_023665.doc
ODPM
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_localgov/ documents/page/odpm_locgov_605084.pdf
ODPM
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_regions/ documents/pdf/odpm_regions_pdf_607885.pdf
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (recommitted) bill
briefing by the Royal Town Planning Institute.
www.rtpi.org.uk
ODPM - Regional Spatial Strategies Supplementary Guidance to PPG11 (online at: )
ODPM - Good Practice Guide on Sustainability Appraisal of Regional Planning Guidance
)
References
1. Research paper 02/5022 August 2002 Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)
http://www.parliament.uk
2. Back to the Future in the Reform of Planning
3. New localism or new centralism? Planning and the regions.
www.lga.gov.uk
Suggested further reading
‘Town and country planning in the UK’. Cullingworth & Nadin.
Page 100, figure 4.4. ‘The planning policy frame work in England’.
‘How to under stand the new planning system’.
.
Planning Policy Statements 11& 12
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/ documents/page/odpm_plan_605841.pdf
www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/ documents/source/odpm_plan_source_605857.doc
