17 September 2008
A delivery focussed planning system
I spoke a few days ago at the CBI re plan-making and here's an extract.
The Government has tried, I believe, to improve the planning process in various ways over the last few years, no doubt as a response to the many complaints about the fundamental slowness of the system. However, despite their good intentions, the changes have, if anything, further delayed planning decisions.
What we need now is a settled period, because every time there is a change it brings about a period of uncertainty as those involved adapt. This in turn causes further delays.
From my perspective as a developer I have found the whole development process in recent times to be the slowest I have ever experienced.
Responsible planning
Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) and Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) are an improvement on the previous development plan system. They allow a longer-term and more strategic approach. 15 years is much better than 10 when it comes to promoting and creating large new communities. They help district wide plan making rather than the old system which was more piecemeal. It is fundamentally a very good system.
In many ways we’ve been fortunate to work with a number of local authorities that do have their core strategy (as the key part of their LDF) in place, but progress is painfully slow with national coverage only 7% since the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act came into effect four years ago! This does reflect the huge learning curve that local authorities have had to go through to make them work.
Indeed, national and regional policy has continued to change, thereby creating uncertainty. Self-evidently, producing truly integrated spatial plans that co-ordinate the actions of a wide range of stakeholders takes time and considerable effort, particularly as it is evidence based.
Planning in practice
There are too many layers to LDFs which does delay the system, adds confusion, and we never get to the end of the process! This builds a huge sense of frustration in trying to move the system forward. It is good therefore to see that increasingly there is only one layer after the core strategy that identify the sites for development.
The flexibility to continually review RSSs and LDFs is of great importance. But we do need to speed up the planning process. We need many more LDFs to be adopted under the new Act as we are a long way short of the targets set.
We are working towards ensuring that evidence based policy making does not create difficulties and slow things down.
We must ensure that we move from the process and procedure based system to one that is focussed on outcomes and delivery. Above all else what the nation needs is a responsible and effective planning system.
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