Claire Stafford is a Planning and Policy Advisor at the RTPI
The first big planning policy consultation of the new Labour Government is ambitious in its content and extent, featuring over 100 questions. The ‘Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system’ puts forward a number of changes which could have a significant bearing on the future of planning, planners, and development in England.
Across a number of documents and statements (the main consultation document, draft text for consultation, outcome of the proposed revised method, a Written Ministerial Statement from the Deputy Prime Minister laying out the government’s intentions, and letters to professional planners, PINS, and other stakeholders from the Planning Minister) the government has laid out a clear direction of travel on many issues. These include strategic planning, the re-instatement of mandatory housing targets and increasing resourcing. These headline announcements have been covered in detail by the likes of PLANNING, Lichfields, Simon Ricketts, the Local Government Association and Zack Simons, and the RTPI is supportive and cautiously optimistic about many of these proposals.
What tells us less about the future, and therefore are in some ways more interesting, are the open-ended questions within the consultation. These suggest both a positive open-mindedness, and a lack of clear sense of direction.
As such, this blog draws attention to the areas of the consultation which seek more general input. Crucially, these offer our membership a unique opportunity to positively influence the future direction of national policy.
Strategic planning
While Chapter 3, which concerns strategic planning, contains many proposals that were prominently trailed in the run up to the consultation, question 14 provides an opportunity for respondents to think longer-term and envision how the transition to a more robust form of strategic planning may be made.
In order to meet the political commitment of delivering 1.5 million homes within the parliamentary term, the government will be relying on speculative development prior to the widespread adoption of new-style Local Plans. To this end, this interim period before the move towards comprehensive strategic planning will require a nuanced approach. Member input here will be crucial in ensuring this period is navigated to achieve the best outcomes.
Benchmarking land values and viability
Questions 37 to 41 seek views on whether the government should set indicative benchmark land values for land released from or developed in the green belt, and on proposals on viability in relation to the golden rules. Insights from across the country will be critical here to determine geographical variation in outcomes. Indeed, this is a key question, on which the RTPI’s Policy Team will be drawing heavily on members’ expertise during the Institute’s ongoing consultation workshops.
Healthy communities
Chapter 8 discusses delivering community needs, with Question 70 seeking input on how national planning policy could better support local authorities in promoting healthy communities and tackling childhood obesity. In this respect, the RTPI has previously highlighted the serious health impacts for residents of many houses delivered via Permitted Development Rights . Question 71 provides the opportunity to influence the government’s suggestions relating to this fundamental planning concern.
Climate change
Chapter 9 ‘Supporting green energy and environment’ contains reforms the RTPI would strongly support, such as large onshore wind projects being brought back into the NSIP regime, and more weight being given to the benefits of renewable energy for net zero.
This section also includes a more general call for policy ideas on mitigation and adaption (Q78), managing flood risk (Q80), climate change in general (Q81) and general views on how realistic carbon accounting is (Q79). These questions present a key opportunity for members to feed in their specialist knowledge.
In addition, general suggestions are requested on what other changes could be made to improve the provisions of water infrastructure (Q85).
The RTPI is clear that national policy must be more ambitious in addressing climate change through the setting of appropriate mandatory targets. The need to consider resilience is ever-more important as we plan for the future.
Uncertainty and opportunity
The wide-ranging consultation certainly sets the scene for the ambitious direction of the new administration, with further consultations expected in the coming months. The National Development Management Policies will be among these.
The various topics covered by the open-ended questions are clearly of great significance; the vague nature of the climate change-related questions could therefore be seen as slightly alarming, given that the RTPI previously wrote to the Secretary of State in March 2023 to emphasise the need for national planning policy to give greater consideration to climate change. This presents a timely opportunity for members to continue to champion the need for urgent action on the topic.
The RTPI’s Policy team are running regional members’ workshops up and down the country to inform the Institute’s response to these open-ended questions and our collective response. Members can also feed in specialist input via emailing [email protected].
