Memorandum by the National Trust (DRA
21)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The National Trust is a major conservation charity,
business and social enterprise and is engaged in a practical way
with many of the issues to be tackled by the Elected Regional
Assemblies (ERA). We have a substantial physical presence in all
of the English regions and, as an important regional stakeholder,
are represented on all the key regional consultative fora covering
many topic areas. The Trust welcomes the flexibility provided
by the bill for each region to set priorities, and mechanisms
to achieve this, according to their needs. There are, however,
some areas where the Trust urges the Committee to recommend strengthening
of the legislation.
— Sustainable development—We
do not think it sufficient that the ERAs, along with other regional
institutions, merely contribute towards achievement of sustainable
development. It should be the democratically accountable body
that has the statutory duty to lead and make progress towards
more sustainable development.
— Regional Spatial Strategy—This
should have greater primacy over other strategies and we are wary
of moves to integrate it with other regional strategies, such
as housing and economic development.
— Heritage and culture—The
Trust is concerned that the current proposals for the heritage
and cultural sectors may not achieve the better integration of,
and recognition for, the combined sectors' contribution to the
regions social, economic, and environmental objectives. The Trust
wishes to explore options to achieve this with the sectors and
DCMS. These might include the merging of the Cultural Consortia
and the Historic Environment Forums. The ERAs should ensure that
the RDAs and LSCs give increased emphasis to enhancing skills
and training in these areas.
— Integration of delivery—Where
policy area responsibilities are divided between many agencies,
such as rural, environment, business support and skills development,
the ERA must ensure that lead and support responsibilities are
clear, straightforward and understandable to all.
— Stakeholder involvement—The
Trust welcomes the commitment to stakeholder involvement, but
wishes to see better acknowledgement of the valuable role of the
voluntary and third sector in regional affairs by increasing its
representation and co-option opportunities.
INTRODUCTION
1. The National Trust is a charity with
over 3.3 million members that works to conserve and protect the
coastline, countryside and historic places of England, Wales and
Northern Ireland for the benefit of the nation. We care for over
250,000 hectares of countryside, almost 600 miles of coastline
and more than 300 buildings and gardens of outstanding interest
and importance in both town and country. We have 50 million visits
to our coast and countryside properties annually and are one of
the largest out of school classrooms with over 500,000 visits
by schoolchildren. We are responsible for nearly 10% of the nation's
SSSIs and museums.
2. We have an extensive regional presence,
with regional offices that broadly match those of the Government
regions, and offices in Wales and Northern Ireland. Each regional
office accommodates 30-40 staff covering a wide range of functions,
reflecting the range of business and subject areas for which the
Trust is responsible—farming, conservation, land and countryside
management, historic building maintenance, arts and chattels experts,
education and skills development, tourism and marketing, policy
and research, and volunteer management.
3. The National Trust has, therefore, a
significant, and influential, presence in the countryside and
increasingly, in towns and cities. We are a substantial business
and social enterprise, having an annual expenditure of £295
million and investing in capital projects of £60 million
per annum. Of this, £160 million per annum is invested in
the nation's environmental infrastructure, working with over 40,000
companies, including 2,000 specialist conservation businesses.
Studies have shown that each National Trust job generates between
five and nine full-time equivalent jobs in the local economy.
4. We are also a leading provider of life
skills, and have one of the largest volunteer forces in the country.
The Trust is strengthening its work on volunteering, learning,
skills and community development. New learning programmes, inspired
by the special places in our care, have the potential to create
life changing experiences and combat exclusion and inequality.
5. The National Trust recognises that devolution
of power and responsibilities to the English regions presents
a major opportunity for policy design and delivery to reflect
the diverse circumstances across the UK, and brings decisions
closer to the people directly affected, helping to create identity,
ownership and pride. In our view, this will only work if:
— economic development is grown in
a truly sustainable manner;
— quality of life factors are treated
as of equal importance to economic development in decision making
and conflict resolution;
— a long term sustainable vision is
adopted; and
— the voluntary and third sector partners
and regional stakeholders contributions are recognised as of equal
importance as the business sector.
6. Therefore the National Trust wants regions
that:
— recognise the importance of the natural,
cultural and historic environment to the quality of life and reflect
this in decision making and resource allocation;
— measure success in more sophisticated
terms than just GDP or jobs created; and
— fully embrace the skills and knowledge
of the voluntary sector and social enterprises, as shapers and
deliverers of policy and programmes.
7. National Trust staff and Regional Committee
members are engaged with, and members of, the regions' cultural
consortia, heritage environment forums, rural affairs forums,
and other tourism, environment, biodiversity and sustainable development
forums. We have a direct presence on the East Midlands regional
assembly, and Trust Regional Directors meet regularly with Chairs
and Chief Executives of RDAs, regional assemblies and regional
Directors of government offices. We, therefore, have extensive
experience of engaging with the current regional governance arrangements
and have used this to inform our evidence.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
8. Whilst sustainable development objectives
are intended to underpin all regional policies and activities,
and it is the duty of the RDAs and others to contribute to it,
we find that, in practice, economic development considerations
remain paramount in regional decision making. We believe the Elected
Regional Assemblies should be required, by statute, to lead and
achieve sustainable development in their regions. We do not think
that requiring the ERAs to contribute to the achievement of sustainable
development is sufficient. In practice, the ERAs should:
— adopt sustainable development objectives,
which are linked to targets and indicators, particularly prioritising
action where the region is not performing;
— ensure all regional strategies incorporate
these objectives and show how they are proposing to deliver them;
— be open to public scrutiny and monitoring
of their own sustainable development strategy, with sufficient
staff resource and budget allocated to this topic; and
— insist that the work of the RDAs
place sustainable development on an equal footing to economic
development considerations.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
9. The Trust welcomes the decision to make
RDAs directly accountable to the ERAs. This should make for more
effective and deeper scrutiny than has been the case in some regions
to date. We also welcome the appointment of RDA Board Members
by the ERA and would expect that this would mean a widening of
the range of interests covered to include social enterprises and
the voluntary sector. Representatives from these groups often
have far more direct experience in achieving business, and social,
success in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, and rural areas, than
many current Board members.
10. The business support responsibility
should rest with one regional institution, and not be spread across
many. It is noted that the ERAs are tasked with working with the
Small Business service, in particular. In our view, the RDAs should
be tasked with responsibility for the entire spectrum of business
support, with the ERA having the scrutinising role. Similarly,
the proposed arrangements, and split responsibilities, for the
skills agenda, appears confusing and difficult to understand.
The ERA should restrict itself to a scrutinising role.
REGIONAL SPATIAL
STRATEGIES
11. The Trust welcomes the role of the ERAs
in producing the Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS), and in having
call-in and direction powers in respect of planning applications
which are in contravention of the RSS. We believe there will be
a continuing need for the Secretary of State to have powers of
call-in in respect of issues of national significance.
12. All other regional strategies, including
the Regional Economic Strategies, should, in our view, be required
to conform to the RSS. This should also be a particular requirement
of the many special delivery mechanisms, for example urban regeneration
companies, set up to deliver the Government's sustainable communities
initiative. These delivery mechanisms currently have a tendency
to believe that their proposals, when it suits them, should have
primacy over local and regional planning strategies arrived at
via more accountable processes, which also look at issues more
strategically.
13. We are also concerned that the inter-regional
strategies that are emerging, such as the Northern and Midland
Ways and plans for the Growth Areas, should have regard to the
role of the ERAs such that the outcomes are considered in the
public domain and made more transparent and accountable than hitherto.
Any resultant strategy should conform to the RSS, or if not, be
subject to the same accountable processes as proposed for the
RSS, and ERAs should be the decision maker for such strategies.
TRANSPORT
14. The Trust supports the production of
Regional Transport Strategies by ERAs and their integration into
the Regional Spatial Strategy. Whilst there is merit in granting
the ERAs direct powers, responsibilities and budgets, such that
the implementation of the transport strategy is within the control
of the ERA, we await the outcome of the three pilot Regional Transport
Boards with interest. We are particularly concerned to see how
the linkages between the regions will be made in respect of the
coincidence (or not) of transport priorities and projects. Transport
is a key area which will benefit from a more robust framework
for sustainable development.
HERITAGE AND
CULTURE
15. Despite the growing popularity of heritage
and history, the value of the nation's cultural heritage remains
misunderstood by the Government and therefore undervalued as a
social and economic driver both nationally and in the regions
as well as for its own sake. The heritage sector itself is not
entirely blameless, as it can be fragmented and "expert"
in its approach. The sector is now working better together, via
the Heritage Link network, to demonstrate its importance to people's
quality of life, and to the sustainability of a region's economy.
This is visible in the production of regional heritage strategies
and the annual Heritage Counts reports both nationally and regionally.
16. The Trust believes the bill could strengthen
the links between the heritage and cultural sectors by integrating
the Regional Historic Environment fora into the Cultural Consortia,
such that there is one influential voice representing all of the
relevant interests. There is a great need for the heritage and
cultural sectors to work more effectively together, and for the
combined sectors to have greater recognition for their contribution
to regional priorities. Culture and heritage are cross-cutting
themes impacting significantly upon the Regional Spatial Strategy,
the regional Economic Strategy and the Sustainable Development
Strategy. They also impact upon the work of other regional fora
such as the Rural Affairs Forum and health improvement plans.
Messages to these bodies from an integrated, influential source
are more likely to be heard and acted upon.
17. Therefore the Trust is concerned that
the proposed arrangements in the bill will not achieve this, and
may further marginalise the heritage sector. The Trust wishes
to explore options, which might include the merger of the Cultural
Consortia and the Heritage Environment Forums, as part of the
current DCMS/ODPM consultation on this topic.
RURAL POLICY
AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
18. DEFRA has only recently published its
rural strategy, and the Trust will be closely involved with the
development of the proposals. The Trust welcomes the strategic
role the ERAs are expected to play, but it is important that the
lead roles and responsibilities between all of the agencies involved
in the many aspects of these policy areas are made clear and easily
understandable to the public at large. The proposed statutory
guidance is welcomed as a means of achieving this.
HEALTH
19. As it is intended that the ERAs role
should be, inter alia, to improve the quality of life of its residents,
then the ERAs involvement in health improvement plans, in particular,
should be more pivotal to its activities. The Trust provides healthy
experiences for many of its volunteers, apprentices, children,
young people and adults both through participating in our educational
courses and skill development opportunities, and enjoying our
properties. The ERA should ensure that the Health and Education
Authorities, RDAs and LSCs should facilitate the development of
these activities in their programmes, as part of their scrutinising
role.
STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT
20. The overall duty of ERAs to involve regional
stakeholders (assembly participants) in the total range of regional
assembly activity, is to be welcomed. The important points for
the Trust are:
— That co-optees, members of committees
etc are drawn from a wider pool of skills and knowledge than currently.
Often the voluntary, environment, and ngos interests are represented,
but marginally, with one person expected to represent the wide
and diverse range of expertise in the environment, heritage, cultural,
educational, community regeneration etc sectors. This sector has
a great deal of skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to contribute,
which needs to be better recognised and rewarded.
— The proposals to develop stakeholder
capacity are particularly welcomed, and the Trust would seek to
ensure that provisions in the bill or statutory guidance are made
to ensure such obligations are backed up with appropriate staffing
and resource levels, and is not seen as a non-priority activity.
— The Trust and other regional stakeholders
put a considerable amount of effort into regional forums, often
with minimal feedback as to the effect of their work in influencing
policy, at both a regional and national level. It is important
that the ERA, the RDA and other relevant regional governance institutions,
and officials, are available for scrutiny by the forums, on the
fate of forum recommendations and that a more participative culture
is developed.
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