TCPA: Reform planning system

That is the central call in a ‘manifesto’ published today by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA).

The TCPA’s Planning4People manifesto, produced in collaboration with anti-poverty group Webb Memorial Trust, outlines current difficulties with the planning system.

It said: ‘In England there is no longer a national or regional way of working out solutions to our problems such as housing need and regeneration.’

It said ‘little or no thought’ is given to basic issues such as where children can play or whether there are enough doctors’ surgeries in an area.

‘More and more development is being approved in piecemeal locations, often through appeals, leading to development that is often poorly served by infrastructure such as roads, hospitals or schools, it said ‘We are producing fewer and fewer affordable and social homes.’

The manifesto calls for a new legal duty in planning legislation to include a specific requirement to reduce social inequality and giving councils back power over permitted development, which allow permission to be waived in some circumstances.