Planning reform and localism

Date: November 2011 www.pas.gov.uk

This session

• Planning basics

• Localism and planning - context and background to changes

• Neighbourhood planning and the draft National Planning Policy Framework

• Discussions

Planning…..

• Sets out a long term vision for a place• Provides a framework for making decisions• Balances competing uses of land in the public

interest • Balances social, economic and environmental

priorities • Delivers change on the ground• Mechanism for people to get involved

On the other hand

• A barrier to growth

• Red tape

• Costly

• Complicated

• Takes too long

• Inaccessible to people

• Adversarial

Planning can be difficult

• People love their places. You love your place

• Planning can involve difficult choices = unpopular decisions

• Involves many areas of knowledge, frequently changing

But good planning

• Is proactive – helps manage change

• Helps make good places

• Is responsive to a changing society

• Involves people

• Helps deliver on corporate objectives

• Brings in investment

A councillor has a role in…..

• Sets out a long term vision for a place• Provides a framework for making decisions• Balances competing uses of land in the public

interest • Balances social, economic and environmental

priorities • Delivers change on the ground• Mechanism for people to get involved

As defined locally and nationally

A ward councillor’s role…..

• understand and get involved in the local plan

• support residents and businesses to get involved in planning

• liaise with officers on planning in your ward

• get involved with neighbourhood planning

• share your residents views on planning issues with officers and councillors

• get involved with the business community

Localism and planning reform

ChangesPre-determination rules…. Neighbourhood Planning…. Local Referenda…. Neighbourhood Development Orders…. Community Infrastructure Levy…. Community Right to Build…. Pre-Application Consultation… Financial Considerations…. Plan for Growth.…Duty to Co-operate… .New Homes Bonus…. National Planning Policy Framework….Presumption in Favour of Sustainable Development…. Local Plans…. Local Development Orders…. Use Classes Order…. Local Enterprise Partnerships…Enterprise Zones…Planning Fees…12 month guarantee….Enforcement

The principles

• Growth and efficiency • Streamline and speed up• Less prescription and regulation• Community empowerment • Incentivisation

Localism and planning reform - context

• Open Source Planning• Budget • Plan for Growth • Localism Bill• National Planning Policy

Framework

Planning framework

• National policy• (Regional Spatial

Strategies)

• Local policy (including optional neighbourhood plans)

• Planning decisions

The Planning Reform Agenda

Community Right to Build

Neighbourhood Plans Local Plans

National Policy

Incentives Planning decisions

In Greg Clark’s eyes

When people know that they will get proper support to cope with the demands of new development; when they have a proper say over what new homes will look like; and when they can influence where those homes go, they have reasons to say “yes” to growth.”

In the eyes of residents

• Localism- we’re in charge – ‘no development’

• Neighbourhood plans – it’s official, we can write it down - ‘no development’

• NPPF –oh no, development everywhere

Incentives

• Financial– New Homes Bonus– Community Infrastructure Levy– Material consideration

• Other– Influence– ownership

The end of…….?

And more of this

And more of this

All adding up to

• More housing and economic growth, happy people, happy developers

Housing

A YouGov survey commissioned by the New Homes Marketing Board has revealed that more than eight in ten people (81 per cent ) believe Britain needs more housing for sale and rent, especially affordable homes for first-time buyers.

It also shows that far fewer - just 50 per cent - would welcome more homes of all types in their own immediate neighbourhoods.

Buildingtalk 22nd March 2011

Discussion……

• How will ‘localism’ play out in your area?

• Do you see trouble ahead?

• Where are the areas of agreement?

Neighbourhood planning

Neighbourhood planning

“It is not merely landowners in the area who are affected or even business interests. Too often in the past the objections of a noisy minority have been allowed to drown the voices of other people vitally affected. These too must have their say, and when they have had it, the provisional plan may need a good deal of alteration, but it will be all the better for that since it will reflect actual needs democratically expressed. In the past, plans have been too much the plans of officials and not the plans of individuals, but I hope we are going to stop that.”

Neighbourhood planning

“It is not merely landowners in the area who are affected or even business interests. Too often in the past the objections of a noisy minority have been allowed to drown the voices of other people vitally affected. These too must have their say, and when they have had it, the provisional plan may need a good deal of alteration, but it will be all the better for that since it will reflect actual needs democratically expressed. In the past, plans have been too much the plans of officials and not the plans of individuals, but I hope we are going to stop that.”

Rt.Hon. Lewis Silkin, MP (1947)

From the National Planning Policy Framework

• Neighbourhoods should….

• develop plans that support the strategic development needs….including policies for housing and economic development

• Plan positively…power to promote more development than …in local plan

• Draft NPPF July 2011

Neighbourhood planning aims

• Empower communities• Neighbourhood led• Light-touch but robust• Flexible - inspire innovation and creativity• Pro-growth - exploring ways of enabling community

supported development• Critical role for local plan in setting strategic context• New basis for partnership work with local authority

A community applies for a neighbourhood area to be designated

Work up details with the community and

Consult statutory consultees as appropriate

If no parish or town council, a neighbourhood forum is designated

Submit proposals to the local authority

Independent Examination

Local authority checks proposals

Community referendum

Make a plan or order

If there is a parish or town council, they take the lead

The local authority can help here

A simple majority is required here

LPA to advise on conformity with Local Plan and when/which statutory consultees to involve

The basic conditions

• They most have appropriate regard to national policy

• They must conform to the strategic elements of the local plan

• They must be compatible with EU obligations

• And compatible with human rights obligations

Front runner issues

• Housing: – growth (how much and where)– bringing empty/inadequate homes back into use– affordable housing provision– retirement village– self build

Front runner issues

• Inner city development pressures • Town centres• Preserving the character of neighbourhoods • Local employment • Lack of infrastructure • Transport issues • Rural isolation • Village design statement

Or is it about these issues?

“For years too many streets…have been ruined by a tasteless jumble of shop signs, railings and billboards, and the people who live there have been left powerless to clear away this clutter. Well enough’s enough. We want to give power back to local people so they can decide what their neighbourhoods look like”

Source: Grant Shapps, DCLG, 6 June 2011

Neighbourhood Planning

• Does neighbourhood planning need to end in a neighbourhood plan (or order)?

• It all ends up as part of the Council’s plan

• Is it about who does the work?

Neighbourhoods and CIL?

A Councillor’s role• Councillors should be at the centre of

neighbourhood and parish or town council discussions about new neighbourhood plans”

Greg Clark March 2011

• Working with the neighbourhoods – explaining, – leading, – inspiring, – helping

Councillor involvement

• Frontrunners– Mixture of enthusiasm and suspicion– Front runner initiative stemmed from them eg Lake

District, Mole Valley, Dawlish, Crawley– Tension between district and parish councillors?

• We say– What’s the problem you are trying to solve?– Find out about the local appetite– Make link with local plan– Manage conflict and competing bids– Mediate, explain, cajole– Early and frank discussions– Understand the alternatives– Think about CIL

Discussion

• Is anyone here involved in a neighbourhood plan?

• What’s the appetite for it amongst your community?

• Do you see this as an opportunity?

• How will you manage community expectations (or aren’t there any)?

National Planning Policy Framework (draft)

• Bringing together all the existing policy and guidance into one policy document

• Very pro-growth • Golden thread - presumption• Plan-led system• 14,000 responses• But

– Good to think, plan, prepare– Direction of travel is clear

Changes?

• Mainly a distillation of existing policies into a much shorter document

• But content of policies has changed, for example:– Town centre first for offices– Target for building on brownfield land– Green belt policy (where previously built upon)– Target for affordable housing

Planning for Sustainable Development

• Planning for prosperity (economy)

• Planning for people (social)

• Planning for places (environmental)

Plan Positively

• Planning should do all it can to support economic growth

• Planning must operate to encourage growth ….and not act as an impediment

• Every effort should be made– To identify the housing, business and other development

needs* of an area– And respond positively to wider opportunities for growth

* do they mean needs or demand?

So, local authorities should….. (para 14)

• Prepare local plans on the basis that ‘objectively assessed needs’ should be met

• Approve proposals that accord with you plan

• Approve proposals where the plan is absent, silent, indeterminate…out of date

Unless….

• ….adverse impacts of allowing development would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the Framework taken as a whole

Remember – still a presumption in favour of the plan

Discussion

• Your thoughts?

Thank you

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