Memorandum by Advisory Team for Large
Applications
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 ATLAS (Advisory Team for Large Applications)
provides an independent advisory service to local authorities
that are experiencing the pressure of increased development activity.
ATLAS works with local authorities and the private sector to facilitate
the efficient delivery of high quality large scale developments
(generally over 500 homes and likely to include a mix of uses).
It has recently expanded its geographical area from South East,
South West, East of England and London to include East and West
Midlands. The original core objective of ATLAS was to engage in
large scale projects to assist delivery. As the team has developed
and grown, the scope of its activity has broadened to respond
to the various complex issues that are involved in achieving delivery
and ATLAS now provides a thorough and holistic service based on
a model of project working, learning, dissemination and influencing.
1.2 This paper sets out our evidence on
the capacity of planning skills in local government based on ATLAS's
experience, together with an outline of ATLAS's involvement and
effectiveness in raising skills levels across the planning profession.
2. OUR EVIDENCE
2.1 This evidence to the Select Committee
is structured under four overarching workstreams through which
ATLAS is delivering its service and engaging with the planning
community in practice:
— Project development and delivery.
— Research and dissemination.
— Planning system development.
Project development and delivery
2.2 Since its establishment in 2004, ATLAS
has supported almost 50 local authorities in bringing forward
large scale development projects involving over of 90,000 residential
units. We therefore have a significant body of experience from
which to draw some conclusions on the skills capacity within local
government to deliver large scale development and sustainable
communities. However, ATLAS experience thus far has been limited
to the South East, South West and East of England and may not
reflect skills and capacity issues elsewhere in the country. It
is also important to recognise that ATLAS is only involved in
a proportion of Local Planning Authorities across its area of
operation (currently approximately 25%) and thus are only exposed
to those issues where support has specifically been requested.
This may be down to limited awareness of what ATLAS can offer,
no large scale projects requiring ATLAS assistance in other Local
Planning Authority areas, or a true (or at least perceived) no
need for ATLAS support in these areas.
2.3 From ATLAS's experience, many of the
local authorities we work with (particularly those that have not
previously experienced substantive growth on a large scale) have
struggled to make the step change needed to bring forward large
scale and complex projects in a comprehensive, inclusive and managed
way. Good corporate leadership and strong collaboration skills
within local authorities can be highly variable and this influences
the overall approach to management and delivery of large scale
projects within the organisation. Particular skills gaps that
ATLAS has been requested by local authorities to provide assistance
with in respect of delivering projects include:
— vision and objective setting;
— project management & process;
— master planning process;
— technical issues including transport
advice, urban design and sustainable construction;
— planning obligations—objective
setting, process for negotiating, and technical advice on areas
like affordable housing and social infrastructure;
— project viability and development
finance; and
— consultation and communication techniques.
2.4 With respect to the specific tasks that
ATLAS has engaged in to date, the greatest proportion have related
to providing advice and assistance on project management and delivery;
followed by advice on master-planning and urban design; and then
in relation to scoping, evidencing and negotiating planning obligations.
2.5 The above information clearly indicates
that there continues to be a critical skills gap both in generic
and technical skills in managing large scale projects to secure
well-planned, sustainable new development. ATLAS is well-placed
to help address these gaps in that it can focus on specific projects
and essentially act as a "critical friend" to a local
authority during the life of a development proposal providing
targeted assistance where required, often in tandem with other
bodies such as CABE.
2.6 In terms of how ATLAS operates, we include
a thorough inception stage for any new project that we engage
with. This is critical in helping us identify with the Local Planning
Authority the nature of the project and identify the resources
and skills available or lacking to help progress it. Following
the inception stage, ATLAS provides advice, examples of good practice,
assistance and support in dealing with negotiations and third
parties. A key aspect of our engagement with a local authority
is that we are very clear that any "learning" that arises
from our engagement should be disseminated throughout the authority
and applied to other projects in order to maximize impacts across
as broad an audience as possible.
2.7 ATLAS strongly believes that responsibility
for bringing forward major development within a Local Authority
goes well beyond the planning department. It needs high level
corporate support, and a range of skills and competencies that
are both technical and generic. There must be a recognition that
the Development Team for a particular project stretches across
departmental boundaries to include technical skills found in housing,
corporate policy, leisure, environment, legal and transport functions
and that all must work collaboratively to understand the issues
in the round and agree a way forward in an efficient manner. This
regularly stretches beyond a single authority, for example in
two tier locations, where functions such as transport and education
lie with the county, and where developments straddle authority
boundaries. Difficult decisions are likely to be required, eg
where objectives are incompatible or priorities need to be identified,
to achieve the best planning balance. This relies on corporate
competencies at a high level including leadership, clear decision-making,
confidence, relationship building, risk-taking and good communication.
2.8 In ATLAS experience both strong collaboration
and good corporate leadership within a Local Authority can bee
highly variable. Often planning as a function is given low priority,
buried deep in the corporate structure. There is often little
recognition of the scale and breadth of resources that will be
required to handle a major project, or indeed the need for the
overall process to be managed holistically.
2.9 In assisting local authorities on projects,
ATLAS focuses on building capacity and confidence in those local
planning authorities with which it is engaged, enabling them to
improve their abilities and use their resources most effectively
to manage and deliver large scale development proposals. Collaboration
is key to the ATLAS approach and local authorities are strongly
encouraged to build positive relationships with developers and
other stakeholders.
2.10 ATLAS believes that planners cannot
be experts in all technical issues but that a basic level of understanding
across multiple issues is necessary, coupled with generic skills
in communication, evaluation and negotiation. Levels of project
management skills generally appear to be low, and often project
management is perceived to be or made overly complicated, such
as through a reliance on over-complex technical software not well
suited to the needs of a particular project.
2.11 In ATLAS experience authorities often
also lack the visioning and leadership skills to articulate to
a developer what it is seeking to achieve on a site (a vision
and objectives), and its response to a proposal is often a reactive
one. ATLAS shares CABE's view that there is a deficit of skills
in creating good places, and that authorities need assistance
to focus on the quality of the outcomes, and to reintroduce greater
challenge, creativity and innovation into planning. This should
move the process away from being a reactive, often adversarial
mentality focussed on "control" and "them and us"
to a more collaborative and participative system embodying greater
trust and understanding.
2.12 The problem that many authorities face
is simply a lack of officers, particularly those with adequate
experience and knowledge of local context. There are many reasons
for this—stretched budgets, difficulties in retaining staff—which
have been analysed and written up extensively elsewhere, including
research by Academy for Sustainable Communities (Mind the Skills
Gap report, 2007) and Planning Advisory Service (PAS). Some authorities
are embracing the problem by investing in young staff with limited
experience who can be trained up.
2.13 In addition, the skills debate is not
restricted to officers within the Local Planning Authority. ATLAS
project experience suggests that private sector generic and technical
skills and attitudes can also be highly variable. The change in
working practices to a more structured and collaborative process
is also proving challenging to the development industry as a whole,
including developers, consultants and other key third parties.
Addressing established working practices takes time and culture
change will undoubtedly take some time to achieve.
ATLAS Effectiveness
2.14 The ATLAS service is independently
evaluated and monitored every 3 months in relation to those projects
it is actively engaged with. This aims to ensure that those individuals
across the planning community that are working with ATLAS benefit
from that engagement, and surveys them directly as to the value
we may be adding to their work The latest quarterly report illustrates
a high level of impact among local authorities, with 87% of responses
attributing some positive effects across a range of indicators
illustrating that more often than not ATLAS has raised the skills
and confidence in the authority for future work.
2.15 Interviewee responses are confidential,
but the evaluation provides a useful commentary as to areas needing
further work or identification of where we are being most successful.
The reports contain useful quotes help to give a flavour of feedback
such as "they put in place a good practice process for dealing
with large applications; it's a model we will look to replicate
at earlier stages in future" and "they provide practical,
pragmatic, well considered advice".
Research and dissemination
2.16 With its hands-on contact with local
authorities, ATLAS is well placed to identify knowledge and skills
gaps and respond accordingly. In ATLAS's experience, knowledge
gaps among local authority officers can arise for a number of
reasons—an inability or lack of political will to apply
emerging or new guidance to local circumstances, lack of knowledge
of good practice used elsewhere, lack of time or resource to research
solutions to problems that may arise through the course of dealing
with a large scale development proposal.
2.17 From its experience to date, ATLAS
has identified a number of areas in which it could usefully provide
guidance for planners including:
— the approach to managing large scale
development;
— how to secure true collaborative
working between the public and private sectors;
— what makes a sustainable high quality
place and how to achieve it—in physical, environmental and
social terms; and
— testing viability and in particular
the relationship with delivering affordable housing.
2.18 ATLAS has adopted the general approach
that dissemination should largely be based upon the knowledge
gathered from direct project experience, to ensure that any guidance
is both practical and useful to the planning community. This area
of work has therefore been limited in the early years to enable
a body of evidence and learning to be established, but is now
becoming more important to ensure that good practice is communicated
to as wide an audience as possible.
2.19 To date, dissemination of research
and information by ATLAS has largely been achieved by the:
— creation of the "ATLAS Guide
: Planning for Large Scale Development" website;
— preparation of research and guidance
reports; and
— organisation of and presentation
at workshops and events.
ATLAS Guide: Planning for Large Scale Development
2.20 The ATLAS web-based Guide has been
created to provide advice and help steer local authorities, other
public sector bodies and private stakeholders through the town
planning process in relation to large, complex or strategic development
projects. (www.atlasplanning.com). It draws upon the experience
of the team of projects across a variety of locations and contexts.
The Guide was launched in 2007 and is intended to be a live resource
that will be updated regularly. Current usage averages over 1,000
visits per month and further awareness-raising initiatives will
occur through 2008 to increase this considerably.
2.21 The Guide has evolved in close collaboration
with a number of external stakeholders to ensure that its content
is accurate and relevant. It contains an extensive range of topic
papers and links to other research documents developed in partnership
with a range of external stakeholders. By way of illustration,
the topic paper on Heritage evolved with English Heritage, on
Design Quality with CABE and on Engagement with CLG directly.
The site is fully linked in to other web based planning initiatives
such as the Planning Portal, CLG website, PAS website and Planning
Officers Society. General feedback is positive with endorsements
received such as:
2.22 "The ATLAS Guide contains a huge
amount of well researched and comprehensive information and I'm
sure it will become an invaluable, independent and authoritative
source of advice and guidance for all involved in dealing with
large scale planning projects." Leonora Rozee OBE, Deputy
Chief Exec & Director of Policy at PINS.
Research and guidance reports
2.23 ATLAS will continue to develop guidance
on areas where it has undertaken unique research based on its
own intelligence. To date it has worked with PAS on researching
Planning Delivery Agreements and more recently produced guidance
for CLG on Planning Performance Agreements (PPAs—see below).
ATLAS has also produced a report on the use of Cascades for affordable
housing (in partnership with English Partnerships and the Housing
Corporation), fed in to the evolution of the Urban Design Compendium
(English Partnerships), and is working on a number of projects
with external partners including ASC, Culture East Midlands, South
East Excellence, the RTPI and others.
Workshops and events
2.24 To date ATLAS has hosted or facilitated
a number of events as well as taking part in dissemination events
organised by others.
2.25 At the national level, in the latter
half of 2007, ATLAS ran a series of nine conference events around
the country on Planning Performance Agreements. Over 400 delegates
attended, mainly from local authorities and statutory agencies
and approximately 80% of attendees rated the events as good or
excellent. Two separate events were run jointly with PAS to provide
training on facilitating the inception stage of PPAs, and ATLAS
also assisted in the delivery of a separate PAS organised series
of events focussed on Pre Application working and Design &
Access Statements.
2.26 At a more local level, ATLAS facilitates
workshops for local authorities covering specific issues such
as vision and objective setting, design and master planning, affordable
housing, and viability. Such workshops are tailor-made for the
relevant local authority and have proved to be an effective way
of disseminating knowledge and learning about issues relevant
to a local project.
Planning system development
2.27 The new planning system is based on
concepts of spatial planning and development management. Both
of these require a planning system underpinned by collaboration
and good communication. Effective development management and collaboration
are central to the ATLAS approach. To support this approach ATLAS
has been actively leading on promoting Planning Performance Agreements
(PPAs). This concept has evolved from early research undertaken
by ATLAS jointly with PAS in 2006 that explored the concept of
Planning Delivery Agreements and led directly to a pilot project
to test their use in practice. The outcome has been the formal
introduction of PPAs into the planning system.
2.28 Given its involvement in project-based
work with local authorities, ATLAS is well-placed to play a key
role in the promotion, providing training and assisting in the
roll-out of PPAs. It considers that PPAs will be an effective
mechanism in raising the skills sets among local authority officers
by providing an appropriate framework for managing large scale
developments through a simple structure of defining objectives,
issues and tasks.
2.29 However, PPAs are as much about a way
of working as a project management tool. This requires a culture
change that for many may take some time to materialise. Many authorities
(and indeed developers) handling large scale sites remain focussed
on a planning application and negotiation based on an adversarial
approach rather than considering a major project from inception
to delivery, and working collaboratively. PPAs should also encourage
an authority and development partners to focus more on what it
is trying to achieve for a site through shared vision and objective
setting.
2.30 From ATLAS's experience, success can
often be down to attitude and not necessarily by a lack of skills.
Those who have the ability to act pro-actively, are committed
and want to make things happen will often drive a project forward
where others fail to. Some individuals have grown into the challenge
if the corporate culture and the qualities of the individual allow.
This is very variable across authorities.
2.31 Other partner organisations have undertaken
valuable work on planning system development, such as PAS and
Planning Officers Society Enterprises work on development management.
ATLAS has and continues to contribute to a number of studies into
the planning system and has positively contributed to steering
groups eg CABE planning forum, PAS, National Planning Forum, Planning
Officers Society, etc.
Collaboration and partnership
2.32 In considering the effectiveness of
government in supporting Local Planning Authorities to respond
to the challenges of delivering high quality and sustainable new
communities, ATLAS recognises the need for central government
and other public sector bodies to practice what they preach in
providing a service that is joined-up, collaborative and comprehensive.
It supports PAS objective of ensuring clarity on the role and
purpose of each advisory organisation. It aims to achieve these
ends by:
— Working in partnership with PAS on
initiatives where we have a shared interest eg PPAs.
— Working with other agencies and organisations:
with direct links to RTPI, Planning Officers Society and RIBA.
This ensures we are complementing and supporting others rather
than duplicating work.
— Creating "Memorandum of Understandings"
with external partners to set out the principles of joint working.
For example, ATLAS evolved an MoU with CABE, recognising that
we are likely to increasingly be involved in the same areas, eg
growth points, and need to provide and promote each other as complementary
services. ATLAS promotes the CABE national and regional design
review panels where appropriate for its projects.
2.33 ATLAS has also prepared an internal
Communications Strategy which sets out in some detail how it intends
to communicate and collaborate with a broad range of partners,
to ensure that the overall offer of public sector support ATLAS
makes is consistent and complementary to the services offered
by other agencies.
3. SUMMARY OF
EVIDENCE
3.1 ATLAS is well placed to comment on the
practical difficulties being faced by planners in relation to
the evolution, appraisal and delivery of planning proposals for
large scale growth. Our services are tailored to respond to these
difficulties, both on a project by project basis, and also in
the way in which ATLAS disseminates guidance. The core areas ATLAS
tends to provide support relate to:
— Project management and ensuring an
effective, collaborative planning process.
— How to approach and secure high quality
urban design through a structured masterplanning process.
— Understanding and appreciating the
concept of spatial planning drawing in other influences into the
process such as transport, movement, environmental sustainability,
social cohesion, etc.
— Bridging the gap between the public
and private sectors, for example by securing shared project objectives,
appreciating the positions of alternative stakeholders, and building
trust between the partners.
— Ensuring a holistic view is maintained,
not least involving the appreciation of development economics,
viability and risk.
3.2 The team is focussed on working with
all those involved in large scale growth—including Local
Planning Authority officers together with applicants, consultants
and important third parties to help build capacity and enable
them to work collaboratively to improve the quality of planning
process. An improved process should lead directly to improvements
to the quality of decision making and final development outcomes.
ATLAS is not the final decision maker, but empowers others to
take this role with confidence.
3.3 ATLAS is accessible to and committed
to working positively with all involved in the planning process
across both the public and private sectors, and is proactively
working with other public sector support agencies and services
to ensure the services it provides are practical, effective and
complementary to other available support.
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