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Reinvigorate strategic planning to join up housing, growth and infrastructure
The government’s planning proposals for England would see the ‘duty to co-operate’ scrapped, but something must take its place, argues Peter French
The failure to build enough homes is “one of the great unresolved challenges of the last three decades,” said the prime minister in his ‘build, build, build’ speech in June, which paved the way for the Planning for the Future white paper. He has a point, particularly for the County Councils Network’s (CNN) member councils, whose areas contain some of the most unaffordable homes outside London.
The white paper presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the planning system for the better so the homes that are so desperately needed can be delivered. But equally, we should be aspiring to build communities – not just bricks and mortar.
“The duty has proven to be a rather blunt tool and seen as a tick-box exercise rather than a mechanism that promotes constructive engagement”
We need to think about planning more holistically, encompassing not only housing, but the infrastructure needed to create communities, alongside employment need, health and environmental concerns. The COVID-19 pandemic has bought this into sharp focus, as has the need to level-up the country and ensure economic growth is more evenly distributed. A stronger approach to strategic spatial planning within the system would help to achieve this.
Strategic planning, which ‘zooms out’ and sets a vision across a broad area integrating social, economic and environmental objectives, has not been a statutory part of the planning system since regional spatial strategies were revoked in 2011. It was replaced in the 2011 Localism Act with the ‘duty to co-operate’ – a legal requirement of plan preparation that requires authorities to “work together, and [with] other prescribed bodies, on strategic matters that cross administrative boundaries”.
Since being implemented, the duty has proven to be a rather blunt tool and is seen as a tick-box exercise rather than a mechanism that promotes constructive engagement. It has worked in some areas, but this has been the exception rather than the rule. Much of the time, the duty gets stuck in conversations around housing numbers, rather than wider matters such as infrastructure provision and delivery.
“CCN will be working with its members and stakeholders to fully consider the proposed approach in the coming weeks”
The Local Plans Expert Group noted in its final report in 2016 that “local plans are rarely co-ordinated in time and, while the ‘duty to co-operate’ may encourage joint working between pairs of authorities, it is not sufficient in itself to generate strategic planning across wider areas, such as housing market areas”. The group recommended that the duty should be strengthened, but recognised that this alone would unlikely to be fully successful without the implementation of other recommendations set out such as a strategy for growth, and wider strategic planning initiatives to coordinate and integrate development.
Four years later, it seems the penny has dropped, and Planning for the Future proposes the scrapping of the duty, asking an open-ended question about what could replace it. A report released last week from Catriona Riddell Associates offers much food for thought about how that question could be answered.
The approach set out in the Planning reforms and the role of strategic planning report argues that closer collaboration between decision-makers across different tiers and sectors would reinvigorate strategic planning by encompassing infrastructure, local economies and health, which are crucial in devising recovery measures in the wake of COVID-19.
It proposes a new power set out in legislation that would be placed on all local authorities to support sustainable development. As part of this power, the proposed approach would also include:
- The creation of Strategic Planning Advisory Bodies, made up of all local authorities within the specified area along with key partners
- The preparation of an ‘Integrated Strategic Framework’ (ISF) which, although not part of the statutory development plan, would play a key role in guiding local plans particularly in testing the most appropriate spatial strategies (including the distribution of growth) that would help to deliver shared a vision and objectives.
- A 10-year Strategic Delivery Plan, linked to the ISF, that would set out what strategic interventions (including any specific delivery vehicles) would be needed to implement the framework. It would also provide a basis for infrastructure funding and other investment prioritisation.
These bodies would come forward across a locally agreed area and would, the report argues, provide a workable solution to the strategic planning void, along with added certainty through the system. It would also help to align national and local priorities and provide a clearer framework for allocating and prioritising national and sub-national funding.
As the consultation on Planning for the Future draws to a close, CCN will work with its members and stakeholders to fully consider the proposed approach in the coming weeks. There is a long road ahead before we will start to see the full effects of the planning reforms set to be implemented, but the need for a holistic approach to the way we plan places has never been more urgent.
Peter French, senior policy officer, County Councils Network
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