Written evidence from Savills Planning
and Regeneration (ARSS 131)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our evidence is concerned exclusively with the planning
regime for renewable energy developments but is informed by our
wider experience of the planning system in England.
The former RSS was valuable as a mechanism for translating
and applying national renewable energy targets at local level;
and for identifying those areas of greatest potential/least constraint
for renewables development at a sub-regional level, regardless
of local administrative boundaries.
New arrangements are necessary to ensure that these
functions continue to be fulfilled in the forward planning process
and to assist decision—making at the development management
stage.
A regional tier is not required to achieve this.
Instead, the new national planning framework should emphasise
the weight in favour of renewables projects; and require LPAs
to plan positively for renewables on the basis of spatially realistic
research into the potential for, and constraints to, renewables
in their areas.
Co-operation between LPAs should be encouraged where
it is necessary in order to achieve spatially realistic evidence.
LEPs may have a useful part to play in supporting
collaborative research by LPAs.
To avoid the need for LPAs to "unpick"
progress already made on new-style plan coverage in their areas,
the Government should be open to revisions to LDS to allow for
collaboratively produced topic-based SPDs and/or AAPs for renewables
to be prepared across LPA boundaries.
The Government should consider giving statutory weight
to the new national planning framework.
SCOPE OF
EVIDENCE
1. Whilst the main focus of the inquiry is on
the implications of the abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies
(RSS) for house building, the call for evidence identifies a number
of other topics of interest to the Committee. These include:
Arrangements which should be put in place to ensure
appropriate co-operation between Local Planning Authorities (LPAs)
on other matters formerly covered by RSS.
The suggestion that Local Enterprise Partnerships
(LEPs) may fulfil a planning function.
Arrangements to ensure effective updating and collection
of research on matters crossing LPA boundaries.
2. Our evidence is concerned with these issues
as far as they relate to planning for renewable energy projects
that fall below the 50 MW "major infrastructure" threshold.
OUR INTEREST
IN THE
INQUIRY
3. The Savills Planning and Regeneration team
is one of the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom. We are
actively involved in advising both private and public sector clients
on planning, development and regeneration throughout the country,
including dealing with many challenging and controversial proposals.
4. We have particular expertise in the renewable
energy sector, once again acting for both private and public sector
clients in relation to most renewable technologies, but in particular,
wind energy.
5. Our evidence is informed by our experience
of the planning system in England at large but is especially concerned
with its role in supporting the delivery of renewable energy and
the associated electricity distribution infrastructure.
THE RELEVANCE
OF FORMER
RSS TO PLANNING
DECISIONS ON
RENEWABLE PROJECTS
6. In relation to renewable energy development
the principal function of the former RSS was to establish a framework
for translating national renewable energy targets to the local
level.
7. A subsidiary, but important, function was
also (in certain cases) to identity those broad locations with
the greatest potential (or least constraint) for renewable energy
developments, regardless of local administrative boundaries.
8. In other respects, whilst RSS would often
contain broad spatial and development management criteria for
renewable projects these policies would, in general, simply duplicate
the principles embodied in national planning policy and lack the
detail necessary to be applied effectively as tools in development
management at a site specific level. That said, during the transition
to the new local planning arrangements introduced by the Planning
and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (The 2004 Act) RSS was, the most
(and possibly only) up-to-date component of the statutory development
plan in many areas. To have the principles of up-to-date national
planning policy embodied in the statutory development plan is
an advantage to effective planning decision making.
POSSIBLE NEW
ARRANGEMENTS
9. There are, therefore, two principal functions
of the former RSS that need to be addressed in whatever new arrangements
are established:
A mechanism for translating/disseminating national
renewable energy targets to a local level.
Ensuring that national planning principles are embodied
in locally prepared development plan documents (DPDs).
10. We comment on each in turn.
(a) National Targets at a Local Level
11. The Coalition Agreement indicates that the
Government proposes to maintain and, possibly, to increase the
previous Government's targets for renewable energy, subject to
the advice of the Committee on Climate Change.
12. Although there have been indications that
insofar as any increase would be related to wind energy, the majority
of the increase would be in offshore rather than onshore wind,
the clear implication is that onshore wind (which is of greatest
relevance to the land use planning system) will be expected to
provide at least as much generating capacity as was previously
planned for.
13. The existing suite of national planning policies,
including in particular PPS1 (and its accompanying supplement)
and PPS22 (and its accompanying practice guide) embody a positive
approach to renewable energy projects of all kinds, urging LPAs
to adopt spatial policies (and take development management decisions)
that facilitate renewable energy projects wherever their effects
can be handled satisfactorily.
14. In the light of the Annual Energy Statement
issued by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
in July 2010, it may be anticipated that the same permissive approach
will be reflected in the new national planning framework, whatever
its eventual form.
15. Current national policy is that significant
weight should be given to the contribution of an individual renewable
energy project to meeting national targets and the draft PPS on
Climate Change promulgated by the previous Government proposed
that the weight in favour of renewable energy projects should
be assessed in individual cases by reference to regional targets
established in RSS. Neither approach envisages that targets should
be viewed prescriptively, however, and there is, perhaps, a distinction
to be drawn with regional housing targets in this respect.
16. Policy is cast on the basis that there is
an intrinsic weight in favour of renewable projects regardless
of their size, because of the contribution they will make to the
aims of national policy. The relevance of national and regional
targets to individual planning decisions was principally in providing
a context within which the relative weight attributable to the
need for renewable energy provision as part of action to combat
climate change could be weighed against other important considerations,
such as landscape and countryside protection policies.
17. The advantage of targets derived from regional
studies over targets established at a national level is that they
have typically reflected an assessment of both the energy potential
and planning constraints applicable at a local (or at least at
a sub-regional level).
18. Although a regional tier of policy is not
necessary in order to convey the significant weight in favour
of renewable projects that is embodied in current national planning
policy (and implicit to the current Government's energy strategy),
there is a need to provide a mechanism of some kind through which
the implications of national policy can be translated to a local
level having regard to both potential for renewables in that area
and the particular planning constraints that apply.
19. This is a different challenge to the one
presented by, for example, meeting housing need where typically
the requirements can be assessed largely (if not exclusively)
at a district level. In the case of renewable energy the need
is a national one and the potential contributions to meeting the
need that may be made at a district level will vary considerably
from place to place, according to the characteristics of different
areas and of the different technologies concerned.
20. Against that background, we suggest that
the following is required:
First, the national planning framework should reflect
the national energy strategy and carry forward the permissive
approach to renewable energy projects currently expressed in PPS1
and PPS22 giving weight to the contribution that they may be made
by renewable energy projects of whatever size in achieving the
national energy strategy; and requiring LPAs to plan positively
for renewables in their area.
LPAs should be required to undertake realistic assessments
of the potential for renewables in their area and to plan positively
to achieve that potential through policies in DPDs.
21. The latter could require collaboration between
LPAs at two levels:
First, for many LPAs it will only be possible to
assess the potential for renewables in their areas—and particularly
for technologies such as wind energy—by considering issues
that extend beyond their own administrative boundaries. The degree
to which "cross border" co-operation is necessary will
vary according to the size and location of the LPA concerned and
there can be no "one size fits all" solution. We consider
that the best incentive to LPAs to collaborate in the preparation
of appropriate research as part of the evidence base for DPDs
documents would be an explicit requirement to demonstrate how
the spatial scope of the research that forms the evidence base
properly takes into account these issues as part of the soundness
testing for new DPDs.
Secondly, few LPAs will have the necessary "in
house" expertise to conduct robust research and it will be
logical and cost effective for adjoining LPAs to jointly commission
research to inform their respective DPDs in those circumstances.
That in itself would contribute to consistent policy making across
local administrative boundaries.
Assisting in the collaborative preparation of robust
research may be the most effective and practical contribution
of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in planning for renewables
and would not be dependant upon a wider statutory planning function
for LEPs.
22. It is important to acknowledge the practical
implications for LPAs of moving to a new planning policy structure
whilst the transition to the arrangements created by the 2004
Act is still not complete. The 2004 Act envisages that DPDs will
be prepared in sequence led by core strategies and culminating
in subordinate development management and site allocation DPDs.
Few LPAs have achieved full plan coverage in their areas and it
would be desirable to avoid the need to unpick the progress that
has already been made in order to weave in a new approach, since
that would be likely to further delay the completion of comprehensive
plan coverage and place unreasonable pressures on LPAs at a time
of resource constraint.
23. For these reasons we believe that the Government
should consider promoting the use of either topic-based Supplementary
Planning Documents (SPDs) or Action Area Plans (AAPs) to deal
specifically with renewable energy needs either on a district
wide basis or on a shared basis across a number of co-operating
LPAs; and be prepared to allow revisions to already approved Local
Development Schemes (LDS) where necessary in order to accommodate
this. SPDs may offer the fastest and most flexible option in most
cases but may be difficult to achieve on a "cross border"
basis where existing DPDs are not already well aligned. That may
well be the case where adjoining districts fell within different
former RSS areas for example.
24. We consider that this combination of:
Clear national policy.
Evidence base prepared with appropriate spatial scope,
subject to explicit soundness testing.
Flexible plan making across district boundaries.
will achieve the desirable elements offered by the
former RSS, but in a manner better attuned to the needs of local
areas and with the potential for faster plan preparation and review.
(b) National Policy as part of the Development
Plan
25. Under the plan-led system established by
the 2004 Act the development plan has primacy and national planning
policy is simply one of the "other material considerations"
to be taken into account by the decision maker. As we have pointed
out, the former RSS was typically closely aligned with national
planning policy. As part of the development plan this ensured
that national planning principles were "built in" to
policy making at a local level.
26. In our view it is important that national
planning policy carries equal weight with local policy and so
the prospect of given statutory weight to the new national planning
framework ought to be considered.
September 2010
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