Audit Commission report a good start but 'needs to go further'

Published by webmaster for Royal Town Planning Institute in Communities

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) welcomes the Audit Commission’s report, ‘The Planning System: Matching Expectations and Capacity’.

It contains some excellent recommendations, but must go further in suggesting innovative ways to increase capacity in Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), such as: fast-forwarding the householder consents review; setting targets for increasing skills; and addressing the role of auxiliary staff.

Robert Upton, Secretary General of the RTPI said: "This report is particularly useful in setting out what we already suspected to be the case, that planning has been under-resourced for years.

"The government’s welcomed attempt to address this through the Planning Delivery Grant has created some secondary problems associated with target culture. The Audit Commission has picked up on this by suggesting some useful innovations but it needs to go further.”

The review of householder consents, currently with the Minister, must be taken forward to improve capacity in LPAs.

The review was set up to establish which householder improvements need to go to the Planning Authority and which do not. By reducing the workload of Local Authority Planners they will be free to concentrate on the areas of planning identified by the report such as major applications and plan making.

The report identifies a shortage of planners, however it is not just a shortage of numbers, but a shortage of skills. LPAs need to do much more to up-skill existing staff through supporting Continued Professional Development and encourage and promote schemes such as the RTPI’s Assessment of Professional Competence programme which will do much to increase the skills and competencies of those entering the profession. To encourage this Planning Development Grant should be oriented towards increasing capacity as well as hitting targets. The target regime needs comprehensive revision focusing on the achievement of outcomes.

The report goes on to suggest the use of private sector firms in helping to share the workload and decrease the pressure on local authorities. There is a danger that shifting work to the private sector will reduce the supply of planners available to the public sector.

However an innovation overlooked in the report would be to make better use of technical and support staff whose knowledge and experience can be put to more effective good use.

Community involvement is at the heart of planning, as set out in PPS1, however the Audit Commission report fails to discuss how to deal with a process which is seen to slow down the planning system. We need to have the debate between speed and inclusivity and to find innovative ways of doing both.

Planners have been criticised in the report for not playing a full enough role in regeneration, however this fails to recognise the strides taken in meeting brownfield targets and in revitalising city centres such as Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds.

Planners have played a leading role in both the visioning process and implementation. Planners need to build on these successes and continue to engage with other professions to improve and regenerate our failing urban and rural areas.

Ends

Press release issued: February 8 2006