TREASURY RAISE FEARS FOR DEMOCRATIC FUTURE OF PLANNING » Communities » 24dash.com

The RTPI has welcomed the interim report of the Barker Review of Land Use Planning as an interesting and thoughtful contribution to a necessary debate. 

But the RTPI is concerned that the interim findings of this independent review are already being misused by parts of Government as an excuse for bringing out a long held hostility to democratic planning.

RTPI Secretary General, Robert Upton, said, "Everyone – including Gordon Brown - must understand that this is an interim report – it is a basis for discussion about what could and should be done to improve the operation of the planning system further.  It is not a set of recommendations for action.  There is not enough recognition yet of the extent to which the planning system is a democratic process which has to mediate between national and local interests, and economic and environmental priorities.

"What is significant and worrying is the apparent division between Kate Barker and the Treasury.  It is clear that Kate does not believe that major structural change is necessary or desirable; but the Treasury is already briefing that the Chancellor will introduce further legislation.”

The RTPI welcomes the fact that the report acknowledges some of the difficulties faced by local planning authorities but considers that it is far too kind to central government, which sets overall planning policy but has failed to create a framework for decisions on major infrastructure.

The RTPI looks forward to working further with the Barker team on the next stage of the review.  Robert Upton said, "As this work develops the review will need to be more precise, honest and open about conflicts between national needs and local democracy, economic priorities and environmental absolutes.  At this stage many people actually involved in planning will find this interim report is an economist’s view of the world and not the world as they know it.”

Upton said that the RTPI wants to see further improvements to the way the planning system works. 

He said "There are three things that central government could do immediately which would bring about an improvement in how the planning system operates for everyone –

• Get rid of the current target culture which the Audit Commission has shown produces pernicious effects – instead encourage planning delivery agreements between developers and planning authorities for major applications, and switch to assessing actual outcomes – jobs, housing, environment, infrastructure

• Implement the review of householder development consents as recommended in Barker 1 – this regime accounts for 55% of all planning applications and absorbs a huge amount of resources in local planning authorities

• Get its own act together on infrastructure provision. The very least that is needed is a mapping exercise to capture the intentions [or lack of them] of all major infrastructure providers and how they match up with development intentions. The recent fiasco on water supply in the south east is just one example of how necessary this is.”

Ends

Press release issued: July 4 2006