Written evidence submitted by the Town
and Country Planning Association (TCPA) (LOCO 29)
1.0 ABOUT THE
TCPA
1.1 The Town and Country Planning Association
(TCPA) is an independent charity working to improve town and country
planning. Its membership includes organisations and individuals
drawn from planning practitioners in government, private practice
and universities. It puts social justice and the environment at
the heart of policy debate and champions fresh perspectives on
major issues, of planning policy, housing, regeneration and climate
change. Our objectives are to:
¾ Secure
a decent, well designed home for everyone, in a human-scale environment
combining the best features of town and country.
¾ Empower
people and communities to influence decisions that affect them.
¾ Improve
the planning system in accordance with the principles of sustainable
development.
1.2 The TCPA's submission highlights the important
role of local government planning services to support the delivery
of local sustainable development and sustainable communities priorities.
Throughout our history the TCPA has have consistently championed
a positive and proactive role for local communities in shaping
their own future. Collaborative governance was central to the
Garden Cities movement of the late 1890s, a movement which had
a profound influence on the fundamental principles of the UK planning
system today. The TCPA established Planning Aid in 1973, sponsored
community support projects at Lightmoor and Birkenhead in the
1980s and our work today includes providing planning guidance
to planners, cultural, sport and health professionals as well
as communities.
2.0 SUMMARY OF
TCPA EVIDENCE
2.1 This submission is based on a series of cross-sector
roundtable debates on the future of planning the TCPA organised
early in 2010. The outcomes from these roundtables are summarised
in the publication "Making Planning Work: a peaceful path
to real reform", which recommends that any reforms of planning
should start with a commitment to responsible localism (this statement
is included as supporting evidence). Strong local leadership is
essential to provide the homes, jobs and services that every community
needs, to accelerate the move to a low-carbon society, and to
protect our valuable natural environment. In parallel, widespread
community participation must provide the foundation for this strong
leadership. We believe that reforms of planning must:
¾ be part
of a much wider effort to invigorate local democracy—planning
reforms cannot be promoted in isolation;
¾ remain
based on representative democracy, avoiding distortion by narrow
sectional interests; and
¾ ensure
that reliable, independent evidence is available to help support
and inform key decisions about a community's future—and
to monitor the impact of these decisions.
2.2 The TCPA recognises that the debate about
localism and decentralisation of public service delivery is more
than just on the planning responsibilities of local government.
2.3 In the TCPA's briefing paper on Responsible
Democratic Localism (document attached), published in September
2010, the Association highlights the following issues:
¾ responsible
localism means:
¾ collaborative,
and participative,
¾ visionary,
by providing a long term vision,
¾ Democratic
and accountable so that decisions are taken by local politicians,
and
¾ requires
resources and skills.
2.4 The TCPA's submission addresses the vital
role of local government planning services. It is in two parts.
First it highlights a number of fundamental issues, which are:
¾ Planning
is a necessary public service.
¾ The
need for strategic oversight.
¾ Opportunities
and limitations of community participation.
Secondly, it addresses specific lines of inquiry
for the Committee. These build on our written evidence to the
Committee's inquiry into the abolition of the regional spatial
strategies.
3. SUMMARY OF
ISSUES
3.1 Planning is a necessary public service
3.1.1 The TCPA believes that the spatial planning
functions within a local authority are a necessary public service.
Effective planning helps bring different partners together to
co-ordinate and deliver responses to meet local challenges, such
as housing pressures and health and well-being. Planning is also
necessary and crucial to the delivery of other public services
and responsibilities of local authorities and other organisations
with an interest in the use and development of land, such as parks
and open space, transport, sports and cultural services. Planning
has, should and must inspire everyone to be involved in shaping
great places to live.
3.1.2 Planning services engage in daily conversations
with individuals and organisations with land and building interests
wishing to use and develop their physical land assets for public
and private enjoyment and amenity. Planning services also engage
in daily conversations with different stakeholders and partners
to enable joined-up planning and decision-making around the provision
of services. In the context of the new agenda for a locally co-ordinated
approach to "place", planning can have an important
role in linking activities at the different spatial levels. For
example, the HM Treasury's report on the Total Place initiative,
found that the "Total Place approach has the scope to deliver
real benefits at all spatial levels"[1].
3.2 The need for strategic oversight of planning
3.2.1 The Planning service must deal with a whole
series of issues which have more than local significance. Strategic
planning is the only way of tackling issues such as energy or
climate change which needs cross border approaches. Renewable
energy is one example where a mass of purely local decisions is
unlikely to meet our European or international obligations. A
number of important mechanisms which had begun to address this
issue have recently been abolished.
3.2.2 Firstly, the Government has now removed
central targets for housing delivery by abolishing the National
Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU). The NHPAU offered independent
advice to ministers and regional and local planning bodies on
the levels of house building required to meet affordability. This
advice was subject to rigorous testing through the regional Examination
in Public process. Without such advice, the link between strategy
and local delivery is broken, and the cause and solutions offered
by the NHPAU through research has been lost.
3.2.3 Secondly, the Government has revoked the
Regional Spatial Strategies and abolished the regional tier of
governance. This has removed the long term vision and strategic
oversight of local planning and delivery of services. This may
impede the sustainability of local development in terms of coherence
and integration, in particular where functions extend beyond administrative
boundaries. A practical example of the problem would be how, under
a purely localised planning regime, controversial development
for energy projects or for the Gypsy and Traveller community or
asylum seekers might be delivered? The Government has outlined
a proposed system of incentives for some forms of development
but it is unlikely that this system will be sufficient enough
to overcome ingrained local opposition.
3.2.4 The TCPA believes there is a need for greater
clarity about the roles of local and strategic planning. Central
government must embark on a comprehensive national framework which
can deal with a wide range of social, economic and environmental
infrastructure issues. Such a framework should have a clear legal
status in the overall plan-making system[2].
There must also be an obligation on local planning authorities
to invest in providing local people with the information they
will need to make decisions—on why we need more homes; on
where we need them; and on what mix of tenure we need to meet
local demand. This would require a new relationship between officialdom
and local communities, supported by measures to improve community
involvement and engagement—so-called "capacity building[3].
3.2.5 Thirdly, the Sustainable Communities Act
2007 has reporting and accountability mechanisms which could be
better utilised. Mechanisms include Local Spending Reports and
Sustainable Community Strategies. These provide a channel for
local people to ask central and local government to take action
according to locally-agreed priorities and hold local authorities
to account.
3.2.6 The TCPA believes achieving sustainable
development will and must continue to be the overarching framework
within which planning and other local functions operate. Local
Agenda 21 began to address these issues by helping local authorities
to broaden their focus from local stewardship to global citizenship
with local communities having expressed a vision of the future
in which a protected environment, a prosperous economy, and an
included society exist simultaneously.
3.3 Opportunities and limitations of community
participation
3.3.1 The localism agenda seeks to devolve power
down to the lowest possible community scale. In general this has
to be the right approach for decision making but if only if a
number of detailed and difficult issues are resolved. Planning
decision making is a litmus test for localism because of the positive
opportunities it creates and the negative challenges in terms
of bad neighbour development. The ambition of Conservative Party's
"Open Source Planning" policy to transfer of powers
and responsibilities from professionals to members of the public
raises two sets of important questions.
3.3.2 The first relates to how communities are
to gain access to the skills and capacity to shape plans effectively.
For example, the Greater Manchester area contains around 1,000
neighbourhoods which would make effective local planning units.
Each requires proper resources and professional support. To give
communities the responsibility for planning without the means
to meet those obligations will lead to further exclusion, inequality
and cynicism by the hard-to-reach groups. The approach risks a
two tier system of planning between affluent and engaged communities
and those whose lack of resource and social capital make it hard,
if not impossible, to participate. The lack of clarity about what,
if any, resources will be given to communities is compounded by
the skill set of the planning profession. Previous Committee inquiries
had uncovered that the planning profession continues to lack the
skills and capacity to effectively deliver on the sustainable
communities agenda[4].
3.3.3 The second area of question relates to
an honest assessment about the limits to community participation.i
We should be honest that there are and should be limits to local
decision making. The local planning process will have to comply
with important national and European legislation on equality,
disability and the environment which impact on both the process
and outcomes of plan making. Local planning will also have to
acknowledge wider strategic needs agreed democratically at the
national level. Crucially it must take responsibility for providing
the social needs of their own community and the wider needs of
other communities. We also have to be honest about where the resources
will come from to deliver such plans. These constraints are real
and provide the context for community empowerment measures.
3.3.4 Policy-makers must also realise that while
the decision-making process should be as open and participative
as possible, ultimately this participation is bounded and limited
by the need for elected politicians to make final decisions in
ways that are accountable to the wider community. The TCPA Tomorrow
Series paper "People, Planning and Power" concluded:
"New localisation may have benefits for service
delivery but does not offer a vital clarity of purpose nor a coherent
vision that can achieve the reconnection with communities. This
can only come with a holistic view of the balance between representative
and participative democracy and recognition of the importance
of clear civil rights which enable opportunities for meaningful,
participative decision-making".[5]
3.3.5 The TCPA remains concerned that there is
insufficient rigour in the localism agenda to ensure that it is
properly related to existing models of local democracy or properly
recognises the level of resources necessary to ensure meaningful
change. There is also a lack of acknowledgment that purely localised
decision will not always reflect the wider public interest or
the rights minority communities.
3.3.6 The Place Survey and Citizenship Survey
illustrates how localism can, and should, be best taken forward
to reflect local circumstances. Results from the latest Place
Survey for England[6]
found that there is scope to improve how local people can be involved
in local decision-making processes, and there are already people
involved in volunteering work and/ or belonging to groups who
make decisions affecting their local area. However the key question
remains which is whether there is capacity to sustain further
decentralisation of public service delivery without increasing
resources and professional support. The degree to which there
is an appetite to take full responsibility for planning at the
local level is unclear. It is safer to assume that people want
a system which is sensitive and responsive to their needs. If
that is the case then changing the culture of planning while leaving
its current structure broadly in place would yield the most cost
effective results.
A summary of the survey results are highlighted below
for the Committee's information:
¾ 45%
satisfied with (taking everything into account) how their local
council runs things.
¾ 33%
agree that the local council provides value for money.
¾ 29%
felt they could influence decisions in their area.
¾ 27%
would like to be more involved in local decision making.
¾ 23%
gave unpaid help to groups, clubs or organisations, at least once
per month in the previous 12 months.
¾ 14%
in the last 12 months have belonged to groups who make decisions
affecting their local area.
4.0 SPECIFIC
COMMENTS
The extent to which decentralisation leads to
more effective public service delivery; and what the limits are,
or should be, of localism
4.1 The limits of localism should be based on
the most appropriate level and scale of planning for sustainable
development. This means marrying bottom-up planning for localism
with a robust strategic framework of investment and infrastructure.
The lessons for decentralisation from Total Place,
and the potential to build on the work done under that initiative,
particularly through place-based budgeting
4.2 The TCPA recommends that the Committee examine
detailed results from the Total Place pilots in the form of a
report by the HM Treasury. Total Place is a relatively new initiative
and like any new initiative and programme of work, must be given
time. In particular the TCPA highlights the following key lessons:
¾ Put
the correct structures in place.
¾ Scope
for financial savings from shared management and joint working
arrangements.
¾ Avoid
duplication of services.
¾ Improve
communication between national and local government.
¾ Flexibility
and recognise that a "one size fits all approach" will
not work.
The role of local government in a decentralised
model of local public service delivery, and the extent to which
localism can and should extend to other local agents.
4.3 The TCPA believes that local government should
continue to take on the leadership role with greater, not less,
responsibility. Local government and its elected members will
and should continue to be held accountable for local decisions.
The TCPA's view is that balance must be struck between a system
of democratic representation and the Government's desire to move
towards democratic participation.
4.4 The issue of resources, capacity and skills
of professionals and local communities, in particular community
and voluntary sector organisations, will continue to be a major
concern. The TCPA emphasises the chronic nature of a skills deficit
already in the planning profession as identified by the Egan Review
for skills in delivering sustainable communities and previous
CLG Select Committee inquiries. Decentralisation and localism
must not be associated with the systematic degradation of the
role of professionals in delivering complex services and undertaking
technical work such as those associated with planning and development.
The action which will be necessary on the part
of Whitehall departments to achieve effective decentralised public
service delivery
4.5 The TCPA emphasises the need for clarity
in the differentiation of roles in Government setting quality
standards for consistency across the country and in the relationship
between local government and potential service providers. In addition
to points raised in Section 3.2, there will be a continuing need
for scrutiny of emerging legislation to avoid the unintended consequences
of legislation on vulnerable groups of the community.
What, if any, arrangements for the oversight of
local authority performance will be necessary to ensure effective
local public service delivery
4.6 Please see comments under Section 3.2: Need
for Strategic Oversight of Planning.
REFERENCE
i Research by
Nick Gallent for the Economic and Social Research Council published
in June 2010 titled "The Politics of Scale and Network Building
in Spatial Planning: Bridging Community Ambition to Strategic
Priority in Southern England" sought to understand the processes
of capacity building within communities and how, through networking,
communities build lobbying-alliances, connect to policy makers,
and maximise the influence of community-led plans in decision
making.
October 2010
1 HM Treasury, 2010,Total place: a whole area approach
to public services, pp 7. Back
2
TCPA Making Planning Work: Briefing Paper 2-National Planning
Framework, 2010, Recommendation 1. Back
3
TCPA Making Planning Work: Briefing Paper 1-Responsible Democratic
Localism, 2010, Recommendation 3. Back
4
CLG Committee, 2008, Planning Matters-labour shortages and
skills gaps. Eleventh report of session 2007-08, TSO, London. Back
5
Ellis, H, 2004, People, Planning and Power-Beyond New Localisation.
Tomorrow Series Paper, TCPA. Back
6
CLG, June 2009, Place Survey 2008 England. Local Government
Statistical Release. Regional breakdown of statistics are
also available. Back
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