Written evidence submitted by RIBA (LOCO
36)
INTRODUCTION
The Royal Institute of British Architects champions
better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture
and our members. The 40,000-strong professional institute is committed
to serving the public interest through good design, and represents
85% of registered architects in the UK as well as a significant
number of international members.
SUMMARY
The RIBA is responding to this inquiry focusing on
the question:
The extent to which decentralisation leads to
more effective public service delivery; and what the limits are,
or should be, of localism
Effective public service delivery includes the provision
of housing and planning services within a local framework of delivery.
The RIBA supports a focus on local communities and the decision
to put them at the heart of planning decisions. However, this
must not impact adversely upon the quality of our built environment.
New local policy initiatives must ensure supra-local planning
is carried out where necessary. Planning decisions with cross
boundary impacts need to be made at a suitable level. Local Enterprise
Partnerships (LEPs) would provide an ideal setting for these decisions.
To ensure that infrastructure projects are successfully
delivered in a locally-led system, the RIBA recommends that LEPs
should have a role in assessing the need and opportunity for strategic
planning and delivering major infrastructure, development or regeneration
projects that impact across local boundaries. In some cases LEPs
will also need to work with other LEPs and Local Authorities to
deliver these projects. Examples of these sorts of projects include
area regeneration; major retail or commercial developments; transport
and energy infrastructure; large housing developments; and flooding
prevention and management.
LOCAL OR
LARGER THAN
LOCAL?
It is essential to have structures and mechanisms
in place which enable the delivery of the projects necessary to
support new development and economic growth, and manage activities
that cross Local Authority boundaries. The Regional Development
Agencies currently play an important role in delivering strategic
planning objectives, and we believe that alternative methods of
delivering the built environment need to be established once the
RDAs are abolished. Many Local Authorities do not currently have
the skills or expertise to deliver strategic planning and economic
development priorities.[7]
ROLE OF
PLANNING FOR
LEPS
If Local Authorities are to be real leaders in development,
they will need to work with a range of partners, including neighbouring
Local Authorities. They will need to take a strategic approach
to planning policy to ensure there is an adequate delivery of
housing, and of the infrastructure required to support development.
We believe that LEPs would seem to be the natural
place for strategic planning decisions to reside. To ensure that
planning projects are successfully delivered in a locally-led
system, the RIBA recommends that LEPs should have a role in (1)
assessing the need and opportunity for and (2) strategically planning
and delivering the following:
¾ Transport.
¾ Energy
infrastructure.
¾ Significant
housing developments.
¾ Waste,
refuse and recycling.
¾ Significant
economic developments (eg superstores or major retail parks).
¾ Flood
defences.
These are the minimum requirements for LEPs to be
useful, and the most appropriate areas to take on critical functions
that might otherwise be lost through the abolition of regional
development agencies.
Given these minimum requirements, it would make sense
for their remit to extend further and take up other elements previously
governed at Local Authority level, in order to facilitate delivery
of its economic strategy. In particular, Planning resource for
large schemes should be pooled at LEP level. This will be more
efficient and effective in dealing with larger planning applications.
Better decisions about these applications will be made faster,
and Local Authorities will be able to focus on smaller, local
schemes. LEPs should also therefore have responsibility to:
¾ Create a joint Spatial Plan
for the authorities involved in the LEP, covering the issues listed
above.
¾ Pool some local authorities'
planning resource to deal more efficiently with those economically
and socially important schemes.
¾ Run Design Reviews[8]
which review those significant schemes (using national planning
guidance, and local authority guidance specific to that location).
¾ Have a single design guide
aligning local authority design criteria and policy, to relate
to the types of development listed above.
DELIVERING BETTER
QUALITY DEVELOPMENT
It is essential that LEPs and the planning system
deliver a high quality built environment. Regional Design Review
panels, currently funded by the RDAs, operate across most regions.
They assess large schemes and have played an important role in
maintaining the standard of significant new developments and ensuring
that design considerations are taken into account pre-application.
The abolition of the RDAs will mean that the future funding of
these panels is uncertain.
We suggest that design review should continue to
be conducted. This could be provided at a LEP level or, as it
does already in many areas, at a Local Authority level.
October 2010
7 For example, a recent Training in Development Economics
report sponsored by a number of bodies including the CLG, HCA,
RTPI and RICS, concluded that planners and councillors need more
training in the economics of the development process. Back
8
A panel of professionals including architects, landscape architects
and others to assess design quality of proposed schemes to support
the Local Authority, the applicant and the architects to get the
best scheme for the area. Back
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