Planning is essential to Government's pro-growth agenda

Published by Fiona Mannion for TCPA in Central Government and also in Local Government

In response to David Cameron’s speech this weekend where the Prime Minister spoke of the need to “rebalance the economy”, removing the “enemies of enterprise”, leading planning think-tank, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), has highlighted that a truly fit for purpose planning system can create the certainty to secure long term investment and support the economic recovery.

 Kate Henderson, TCPA Chief Executive said:

“Planning is vital to delivering the Government’s pro-growth agenda; informing investment and spending across government by delivering coherence and providing added value to the myriad of individual and corporate decisions and actions across government and the wider public and private sectors.”

“Good planning makes markets work better; creating certainty for investment and informing local decision making.  To enable England to work to its full potential we need a fit for purpose planning system which requires leadership and a strong strategic narrative at both the national, strategic and local scale.”

The TCPA will be holding a parliamentary briefing in the House of Lords, 24^th March 2011 on ‘Rebalancing England’, hosted by Lord Jeremy Beecham and working in partnership with the Core Cities Group and the Passenger Transport Executive Group (Pteg). The event will set out the findings from a conference held in Manchester earlier in the year about constructive solutions for the planning system that support strategic business and infrastructure investment in the context of the Government’s localism agenda and the potential role of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).