Planning is essential to quality of life in Britain

Published by Fiona Mannion for TCPA in Central Government and also in Communities, Environment, Housing, Local Government

In response to today’s Budget, leading planning and housing think-tank, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), has highlighted that a truly fit for purpose planning system is at the heart of creating attractive, well designed places; promoting quality of life; and creating the certainty to secure long term investment and support the economic recovery.

Responding to the Budget’s planning announcements overall, Kate Henderson, TCPA Chief Executive said:

“Good planning is important to every one of us. Without planning Britain would look very different, we wouldn’t have well designed attractive cities, market towns and villages, greenbelt and parks. Our planning system is vital to tackling climate change and provides a safeguard against sprawling uncontained development where housing growth is not linked to jobs, healthcare and education. We don’t want to repeat planning disasters like in Detroit.”  

“Planning makes markets work better; creating certainty for investment and informing local decision making.  A planning system which is truly fit for purpose will enable England to work to its full potential and for every person to live in attractive, well designed communities with jobs.”

1. Changes to permitted development rights: converting commercial property into private dwellings

On the Government’s intention to remove the need to apply for planning permission when converting empty offices and shops into homes, TCPA Chief Executive Kate Henderson said:

“Good planning has a pivotal role in securing the quality of life of local communities and individuals, for example by ensuring that new development is attractive and well designed. While permitted development rights, which remove the need to seek planning permission, can be useful for some purposes such as minor changes to buildings, they present a number of challenges if not used appropriately. Changing the use of buildings from commercial to residential purposes has important consequences such as ensuring that new homes are well connected and supported by amenities, including schools, hospitals and shops; and ensuring that the loss of employment land is not detrimental to the economic success of an area.”

“If we are serious about returning power to local communities then we must ensure that relaxing rules about changing land use without prior consultation does not undermine people’s ability to shape the places in which they live.”

2. Land auctions for planning permission

On the Government’s plans for a pilot of ‘land auctions’ where local authorities buy undeveloped land from local owners, grant that land planning permission and then auction it to developers, therefore raising money from the increase in the land value, Kate Henderson said:

 “The TCPA has always campaigned for capturing the uplift in land value from granting planning permission for the benefit of the community and funding infrastructure costs, for example through mechanisms such as the Community Infrastructure Levy. However, the pilot of ‘land auctions’ raises some serious questions about the probity of planning decisions and risks undermining the Government’s ambition to rebuild trust in the planning system. We wait to see the details of these pilots but transparency of decision-making and ensuring development is in accordance with the principles of sustainable development will be pivotal.”

3. Presumption in favour of Sustainable Development

On the Government’s outlined ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development, Kate Henderson 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.”

“As yet it is still unclear as to what the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ will mean in practice. It may act as a guiding principle for all development decisions to be in accordance with sustainable development. Or it may be a more radical idea that where there is no local or neighbourhood plan in place, any proposal which can be shown to comply with the definition of sustainable development will be eligible for consent. If the latter is the case, then a robust definition of sustainable development will be fundamental to ensuring we get the right kind of development in the right place and secure the long term well being of our communities”