The Planner - December 2021

DECEMBER 2021 THE SCOTTISH PLANNER LIVE // p.4 • TAKING THE TEMPERATURE AT COP26 // p.18 • POWER TO THE PEOPLE? PLANNING REFORM PAUSED // p.30 • NORTH NORFOLK’S MIXED TENURE SUCCESS // p.34 • AGAINST PIECEMEAL POLICY // p.42

T H E B U S I N ES S M O N T H LY FO R P L A N N I N G P R O F ES S IO N A LS

On the level WILL LEVELLING UP PROVE TO BE JUST AN ENORMOUSLY EXPENSIVE GAME OF SNAKES AND LADDERS?

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RTPI Directory of Planning Consultants is delivered by

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CONTENTS

D ECEMBER

10 NEWS 4 RTPI Scottish Planner Live: A time to shift the conversation 7 2021 Young Planners Conference: Full circle: Former virtues can inform a climate-friendly future 8 A Budget round-up 9 Scotland plans to double onshore wind scope by 2030 10 £3.9bn to decarbonise heat and buildings set out in Net Zero Strategy 11 Newsmakers: 10 top stories appearing now on The Planner online

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"THE BIT THAT CAN HELP LEVEL UP IS HAVING A CLEAR SPATIAL STRATEGY ABOUT... WHAT IS AND ISN'T ACCEPTABLE IN YOUR AMBITIONS TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE”

14 Louise BrookeSmith: 1947 and all that

16 Julie Foley: Good planning can help to tame the flood of climate change effects 17 Joe Ridgeon: Planning policy needs to harness the winds of change 17 Estelle Dehon: What COP26 decisions mean and why planners should be interested

QUOTE UNQUOTE

The COFFEE SHOP

OPINION

16 Ken Hopkins: Time to take the politics out of planning with independent body

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“IS THIS HOW OUR STORY IS DUE TO END? A TALE OF THE SMARTEST SPECIES DOOMED BY THAT ALL­TOO­ HUMAN CHARACTERISTIC OF FAILING TO SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE IN PURSUIT OF SHORT­TERM GOALS?” SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH SPEAKING AT COP26

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COV E R I M AG E | N E I L S T E V E N S

FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 The Planner’s deputy editor Simon Wicks sent postcards ‘home’ from the opening days of the COP26 climate conference

38 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis

30 A cabinet reshuffle has put planning reform on pause as ministers think through their options.

Huw Morris reports 34 Case study: Broadland Housing Association’s North Norfolk District Wide Affordable Housing Strategy

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42 Legal Landscape: Opinions from the legal side of planning 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute

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50 What to read, what to watch and how to keep in touch

Make the most of The Planner by visiting our links for related content

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NEWS

Report { Coverage by Laura Edgar, Simon Wicks and Martin Read

Tom Arthur

RTPI SCOTLAND PLANNER LIVE

A time to shift the conversation Coverage by Laura Edgar, Martin Read and Simon Wicks

Session: Ministerial address, Tom Arthur MSP, minister for public finance, planning and community wealth Tom Arthur began the conference by commenting on the addition of ‘community wealth’ to his job title and how this meant all aspects of his portfolio

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represent, this science now had “clearly linked seems impenetrable. The objectives”. processes and decisions On National Planning about new housing play a Framework 4 (NPF4), big part in shaping the Arthur promised “a really often negative view people exciting conversation about have of planning. We need how Scotland develops over to shift the conversation the next few decades”. beyond numbers to how “I don’t want to give any our homes and spoilers so close to launch, communities work for us.” but you can expect to see Arthur closed by stressing the Scottish Government’s that he understood the commitment to tackling the pressures planning services twin climate and national had been facing, telling emergencies throughout delegates that “we are the NPF4 draft.” taking steps In particular, as a priority to 20-minute increase neighbourhoods, authorities’ said Arthur, income from present “an their planning excellent “LIVEABLE, services. We opportunity to ACCESSIBLE will also rebalance how PLACES WITH we live, work THRIVING LOCAL progress with and travel.

ECONOMIES WILL the requirement for all Liveable, BE IMPORTANT authorities to accessible IN REDUCING appoint a places with TRANSPORT chief planning thriving local DEMAND AS officer, economies will WELL AS be important in STRENGTHENING recognising the value that reducing OUR planning adds transport COMMUNITIES” to delivering demand as well objectives”. as strengthening Arthur also said that the communities”.Although government is moving Arthur again avoided ahead with plans to recruit revealing specific NPF4 Scotland’s proposed details on housing land national planning targets, he spoke frankly improvement coordinator. about the challenges ahead.

“The role will be an “Planning for housing has important resource for the become a complex whole planning community numbers game, difficult to and I expect us to have understand even for someone in place in the professionals. For the next year.” majority of people I

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PLAN UPFRONT

Levelling the playing field before time runs out Session: A green recovery for whom?

Speakers: Dr Oliver Escobar, senior lecturer in public policy, University of Edinburgh Jane Tennant, strategic planner, Clydeplan and member of the Scottish Young Planners Steering Group Chair: Barbara Cummins, convenor, RTPI Scotland “Rampant political inequalities” across the world are expanding the gap between the politically rich and the politically poor, said Dr Oliver Escobar.

Some people know how to play the existing political game and some people don’t, he explained.

“Those that are excluded are those who are politically poor.”

There is a risk that the transition to a green economy will not be a just one, even though planning is “ripe for social, economic and democratic innovation”.

The fundamental question for Escobar

Local, local, local Session: What should a green recovery look like?

Speakers: Sarah Longlands, chief executive, Centre for Local Economic Studies Professor Mike Danson, visiting professor of School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde and member of the Just Transition Commission Stefanie O'Gorman, director, city economics, Ramboll Chair: Barbara Cummins, convenor, RTPI Scotland Community wealth building has a “really key role” to play in supporting a strong green recovery in Scotland, said Sarah Longlands.

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is what kind of citizens are invited to be in the planning processes that we put in place. “Are they invited to be spectators, complainers, followers, or are we creating processes that allow them to be thinkers, problem-solvers and co-producers?"

Jane Tennant noted that the IPCC warned us 30 years ago that harmful climate change was upon us, while a recent Guardian article highlighted that 60 years of climate warnings have been ignored. “Next year I turn 40, which makes these timescales really stand out,” she said. “Sixty years ago, my dad was a teenager, and 30 years ago I was nine. I read in the article that in 1982 a researcher in an R&D team at

Exxon thought he was going to work on zero-carbon fuels. This made me wonder about all the opportunities that we’ve missed.”

The National Planning Framework 4 looks 30 years ahead, but we don’t have that time, Tennant warned. Boats have been missed but there are still opportunities. “We need to start acting.”

From the environment through to climate resilience, this challenge can be met, she insisted, from the top-down and down-up.

“And it would be great if we could meet in the middle somewhere, and achieve better outcomes for everyone, from health and wellbeing through to the economy as well as the environment.”

“The power of local is crucial” and the UK Government won’t deliver net zero “without that local action on the ground, through local councils, through anchor organisations and their partners”.

Longlands explained that this means creating an economy that sustains itself rather than one in which wealth is extracted by shareholders; one that “generates the wealth and keeps it in an area so that you’re getting better, local jobs and better support for existing businesses”.

The Just Transition Commission, asked to consider a green recovery from Covid-19 last year by the Scottish Government, issued 27 recommendations, Professor Mike Danson explained. These were gathered around four key messages, including to invigorate communities

and strengthen local economies. In terms of finance, energy and food, for example, local production should take precedence over national and international supply chains.

Stefanie O’Gorman spoke about Ramboll’s research for the Scottish Government on 20-minute neighbourhoods. These, she said, require three elements: n Access to good-quality schools, infrastructure and doctors. n The capacity to provide a good quality of experience. n Public engagement and behaviour change.

There are examples of these neighbourhoods around the world, but O’Gorman noted that “we haven’t seen a national application of those”, for which public participation is “absolutely vital”.

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NEWS

Report { A care for context and exploring greener, community-based economic models. “A ‘green new deal’ presents an opportunity to develop a place-based approach for decarbonisation which builds upon principles of community wealthbuilding,” he said. Unlike Leeds, North Ayrshire’s endeavours would be supported by stronger policies in the forthcoming National Planning Framework 4.

Having declared a climate “National policymaking emergency, Leeds created a processes do not always climate commission to effectively monitor represent rural progress. interests, “We showed however,” that we can get about 52 per “I CONSIDER OUR observed Debbie cent of the way UNDERSTANDING Mackay. Covering 98 per cent of there by 2030 OF WHAT land, rural using current SUSTAINABLE Scotland technologies,” PLANNING FOR contains 17 per Martin Elliot RURAL AREAS cent of the noted.

REALLY LOOKS population yet But the city’s LIKE TO BE aspiration INADEQUATE. AS accounts for 27 per cent of the exceeds this. The A PROFESSION, national council factors WE NEED TO economy. climate into DIG DEEPER” – “Our rural decisionDEBBIE MACKAY economy is not making, it is just crucial to Scotland’s retrofitting council stock, national brand; it is crucial building low-carbon council to our national prosperity,” homes, generating lowshe said. Scotland’s natural carbon energy, planning capital can provide the 20-minute neighbourhoods bedrock for a greener and exploring ‘circular’ economy, with repopulation economics. Planning is central to the rural planning integral to a low-carbon vision. “But overall, I future, Elliot argued, but consider our understanding needs stronger national of what sustainable planning policy direction. for rural areas really looks North Ayrshire has also like to be inadequate. As a declared a climate profession, we need to dig emergency, said Jim Miller. It deeper.” is generating green energy Session: Making it happen in different settings Speakers: Martin Elliot, director of strategic planning, Leeds City Council Jim Miller, head of planning, North Ayrshire Council Debbie Mackay, director of planning, Savills Chair: Barbara Cummins, Convenor RTPI Scotland

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Time to ‘unfreeze the status quo’ Session: Making it happen: How can we instigate change?

Speakers Stephen Ottewell, director of planning for Capita Kevin Robertson, chair of Scottish Property Federation Pam Ewen, chief planning officer for Fife Council and chair of Heads of Planning Scotland Chair: Barbara Cummins, Convenor RTPI Scotland How do we accelerate the transition to a ‘green’ economy? For Stephen Ottewell, the key is to “unfreeze the status quo” and “instigate new behaviours” to achieve culture change. This would require a “strategy and vision” for planning that cuts across politics, perceptions and beliefs to include all within an environmentally friendly economic model.

To achieve it, however, will require the support of “powerful people”.

Kevin Roberston said the property industry had accepted that if it did not embrace “climate change challenges” it would “fail”. “There’s more acceptance among occupiers, developers and investors that we need to produce better and more sustainable buildings,” he said. But it was challenging to create welcoming urban environments, not least because the process to develop new buildings has become “more complicated and more expensive than ever”.

“So it’s important that we work together in partnership with planners.”

Pam Ewen identified three areas for change: legislation and national policy, infrastructure delivery, and skills development. The National Planning Framework and its integration with development plans offers a “huge opportunity” for a “radical shift in policy”, she argued. The “right kind” of infrastructure “THERE’S MORE needed to be installed in ACCEPTANCE the “right places” at the AMONG “right time”.

OCCUPIERS, Finally, planners DEVELOPERS themselves needed to be AND INVESTORS more “carbon-literate” and THAT WE NEED TO aware of emerging PRODUCE BETTER technology, sustainable AND MORE building design, reuse of SUSTAINABLE existing assets and how BUILDINGS” to calculate carbon – KEVIN emissions.

ROBERTSON

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PLAN UPFRONT

RTPI YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE 2021

Coming full circle: Former virtues can inform a climatefriendly future

Tom Arthur, Scotland’s minister for public finance, planning and community wealth

By Simon Wicks

The theme might have been ‘Our place in a climate crisis’, but it could equally have been ‘How looking to the past can help us plan for a more climate-friendly future’. Throughout a 2021 Young Planners’ Conference in Edinburgh that roamed from heritage protection to doughnut economics, it became clear that seasoned approaches to placemaking can aid planners addressing the climate crisis of today.

Tom Arthur, Scotland’s minister for public finance, planning and community wealth, set the scene. Scotland’s revised National Planning Framework would flex to the challenges of climate change with a focus on carbon reduction, wellbeing, 20-minute neighbourhoods, active travel and localised, ‘circular’ economies.

The future lies in the hands of young planners. “This is your time,” he told the audience. “There is a need for all of us to stand up for planning and places.

Planning absolutely matters.”

Economics was a prominent theme – Susan Rintoul of Planning for Place

Referring to London’s Olympic Park in particular the need to return to locally and the new Cairngorms National Park sustained and sustaining economies in visitor centre, Nick Ribbons of Zero which resources were reinvested rather Waste Scotland posited the ‘circular’ than extracted, used and discarded. economy as a solution to resource Looking back, RTPI president Wei Yang overuse and waste. Both had been built praised the garden city emphasis on in such a way that their materials could good health, inclusivity and green space. easily be recycled.

She drew attention to their model of What of the future? Heather Claridge, community ownership and governance, principal officer at Glasgow City the reinvestment of resources drawn Council, discussed principles from the community. “For for designing ‘carbonwhom do we plan?” she conscious places’; Susan asked. The answer was Rintoul, project officer implicit. with Planning for Place, Dr Ann MacSween, talked about the links head of planning at between climate, health Historic Environment and planning.

Scotland, highlighted the But it was left to Mark carbon value of retaining Tewdwr-Jones, professor and restoring built heritage of cities and regions at The rather than demolishing and Bartlett, to sum up the day’s rebuilding. Retrofit rather than Nick Ribbons of concerns. The author of Urban rebuild preserves what we loved Zero Waste Scotland Futures called for an overhaul about places, too. of planning to incorporate Emotional response was longer-term thinking, bolder visions, central to Dr Rebecca Madgin’s and greater collaboration across sectors understanding of place as well. “Where and disciplines. is emotion located in the process of “We are having to deal with placemaking?” asked the professor pandemics, economic decline, climate of urban studies at the University of change, deprivation, social exclusion, Glasgow. “How can emotion help us housing crises, poor health and maintain and sustain successful places?” wellbeing, job uncertainty and digital To the present, and Leonora Grcheva exclusion,” he stressed. “How can we explored ‘doughnut economics’. even begin to address major social Impressive visuals showed at a glance problems in places if we are all so the distribution of resources in society compartmentalised and when the rules and the gaps between what is available of the planning game on urban change to us at a planetary level and what we prioritise major development interests?” actually use. Her “selfie of humanity” The Young Planners’ Conference 2022 clearly illustrated the urgent need to will take place in Milton Keynes. rethink our economic structures.

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NEWS

News {

A Budget round-up October saw chancellor Rishi Sunak deliver a Budget and Spending Review that begins “the work of preparing for a new economy” after the pandemic.

Here is a quick round-up of highlights: n £24 billion for a multi-year housing settlement: - £1.8 billion for housing supply, to deliver £10 billion investment since the start of this Parliament and unlock more than a million new homes over the Spending Review 2021 period and beyond.

- £65 million investment to improve the planning regime with a new digital system to ensure more certainty and better outcomes for the environment, growth and quality of design.

- £5 billion to remove unsafe cladding from the highest-risk buildings, of which £3 billion is over the SR2021 period. n The first round of Levelling Up Fund bids were allocated to 105 areas. n Funding was allocated for the first

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21 projects from the £150 million Community Ownership Fund, which seeks to help communities protect their assets across at least eight bidding rounds. n The regeneration of 170 high streets, town centres and local communities across England through the Towns Fund. n Establishing at least one freeport in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland but locations have not yet been named.

Freeports in Humber, Teesside and The Thames will be able to begin initial operations in November. n Accelerated funding for the Cardiff City Region Deal, bringing forward £105 million for the remaining nine years of the deal from 2022-23 onwards. n The National Infrastructure Commission will investigate how to lessen surface water flood risk. n £5.7 billion of investment over five years in eight city regions.

Victoria Hills, chief executive of the RTPI, said the £65 million to drive digital

improvement in the planning system “is a positive step and aligns with the RTPI’s calls to upgrade this aspect of the system”. It will “free up” planners to plan for sustainable communities, “but there are many other areas of the planning system that need greater resources, which is why the RTPI initially called for £500 million over four years. We look forward to working closely with the government on the forthcoming planning reforms and will continue to make the case for the much-needed greater resourcing for the planning profession, which will be instrumental in delivering a planning system that addresses housing supply, climate change and economic wellbeing for everyone.

“A three-year settlement worth £4.8 billion for local authorities is desperately needed and the RTPI hopes that some of this money can be used to reverse the backslide in expenditure on planning, which has fallen by 29 per cent since 2009-10 in England.

The RTPI will continue to champion the implementation of chief planning officers in every local authority who can deliver the future package of planning reforms whilst ensuring adequate expenditure on planning is in place and used wisely.”

Read The Planner’s full coverage here: Sunak outlines £24bn housing settlement: bit.ly/planner1221housingsettlement Sunak allocates first round of bids to Levelling Up Fund: bit.ly/planner1221LUallocations Freeports and growth deals: bit.ly/planner1221-freeports NIC to investigate surface flooding risks: bit.ly/ planner1221-NICflooding Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 document: bit.ly/planner1221AutumnBudget2021

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PLAN UPFRONT

Scotland plans to double onshore wind scope by 2030 The Scottish Government is consulting on its plans to “more than double” Scotland’s onshore wind capacity by 2030.

The ambition was first outlined in the cooperation accord between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party in August.

Proposals to meet the 2030 target are set out in a draft Onshore Wind Policy Statement. These include securing an additional eight to 12 gigawatts (GW) of installed onshore wind capacity by 2030. The country has 8.4GW of installed onshore capacity.

The government said additional capacity is possible mainly because of technological advances in turbines, which are larger and more efficient than those in current use.

Net-zero and energy secretary Michael Matheson said: “Onshore wind is one of the most costeffective forms of large-scale electricity generation and is vital to Scotland’s future energy mix.

“Our draft Onshore Wind Policy Statement outlines the huge potential for this technology, and assesses the significant economic opportunity of future deployment, particularly in light of our green recovery aspirations.”

Green skills minister Lorna Slater said Scotland has one of the best systems in the world in which to deploy wind farms. “The changes we are proposing will build on this to make Scotland even more attractive for wind developers and the wider supply chain industry.”

New tidal lagoon project proposed for Swansea Ambitious £1.7 billion proposals for a tidal lagoon and associated development on Swansea’s waterfront have been unveiled by an international consortium.

The scheme is a successor to the city council’s Dragon Energy Island initiative and has the support of the local authority and Associated British Ports. It is planned to be sited along an extensive area of land and water to the south of the Prince of Wales Dock in the SA1 area of Swansea.

Its elements include: n a 9.5km tidal lagoon

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capable of producing 320-megawatts of power; n a 60,000-squaremetre manufacturing plant making high-tech batteries for renewable energy storage; n a battery facility to store the renewable energy produced locally and to power the site; and n a 72,000-squaremetre floating solar array anchored in the Queen’s dock area.

The group behind what is being called Blue Eden is led by Bridgend-based DST Innovations. The scheme will be delivered in three phases over 12 years.

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NEWS

News { £3.9bn to decarbonise heat and buildings set out in Net Zero Strategy The UK Government has committed £3.9 billion of new funding for the decarbonisation of heat and buildings as part of its Net Zero Strategy.

The strategy sets out how the government intends to secure 440,000 “well-paid jobs” and unlock £90 billion of private investment by 2030.

It forms the government’s plan to end its contribution to the climate crisis by 2050. It also wants people’s energy bills to be lower. It features: n Plans to decarbonise heat and buildings include a £450 million three-year boiler upgrade scheme to be implemented through the Heat and Buildings Strategy. n £124 million boost to the government’s Nature for Climate Fund to restore 280,000 hectares of England’s peat by 2050 and treble woodland creation in England. n £500 million will go towards “innovation projects” to develop green technologies.

The strategy states that the government recognises the importance of the planning system to common challenges like combating climate change and supporting sustainable growth. To deliver a decarbonised system by 2035, the government has made a number of key commitments, including ensuring that the planning system can support the deployment of low-carbon energy infrastructure.

According to the strategy, the government will embed transport decarbonisation principles in spatial planning and across transport policymaking. It acknowledges that the UK has a limited amount of land and to deliver net zero, changes to the way land is used are required, such as afforestation, biomass production and peat restoration.

Read the full story: bit.ly/planner1221netzerostrategy

Irish planning regulator calls for digital application system The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has insisted that Ireland urgently needs to introduce an online planning application system.

Going digital would ease the administrative burden facing local authorities and create a more userfriendly experience for applicants, stresses the OPR in its report on application documentation.

It notes that Covid-19 restrictions highlighted a need to provide the public with adequate remote access to planning services and reveals that although local authorities generally provide good access to planning application documentation online,

greater consistency is needed in the way documents are accessed.

The regulator’s report shows big variations in user-experience owing to the three different IT systems used by the state’s 31 planning authorities and concludes that there is a strong case for a standardised back-office system.

Read the full story: bit.ly/planner1221-OPRdigital

Rural policy is ‘unharmed’ by withdrawn advice note Northern Ireland infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon has maintained that the abrupt withdrawal of a planning advice note (PAN) on countryside development does not undermine strategic planning policy on rural development.

The PAN was published in August. At a committee meeting in October, chief planner Angus Kerr and two colleagues protested that it did not represent a change in policy but a clarification.

But the committee heard evidence from planning authorities, land agents and farming interests that there was concern surrounding the PAN. In statements, Mid Ulster District Council and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council said it “not only clarifies and re-emphasises the extent of policy provisions but represents a change to existing policy on the grounds that it introduces new material considerations for planning authorities in their assessment of development proposals”.

The committee asked Mallon to withdraw the PAN, which she did. Speaking at Stormont later in October, Mallon said that the PAN was to provide clarification on the correct meaning and intended application of the Strategic Planning Policy Statement and to assist planners to make decisions and bring forward development plans.

Unfortunately, she noted, it had instead “created confusion and uncertainty”.

Read the full story: bit.ly/planner1221-ruralPAN

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I M AG E | I STO C K / S H U T T E RSTO C K

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CATCH UP P WITH THE PLANNER

Newsmakers N Climate guidance for planning launched The RTPI and the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) have launched new guidance on how the planning system can help communities to face the climate crisis. bit.ly/planner1221climateguidance

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Skills and materials shortages delay local builders The Federation of Masterr Builders’s (FMB) latest State of Trade Survey survey has found that 89 per cent of local builders are delaying jobs because of a lack of materials or skilled tradespeople. bit.ly/planner1221-skillsshortage

2 The Foxes submit application to extend football stadium

Nearly 300 new homes in Belfast progress Proposals for 300 new homes in Northern Ireland’s capital have made significant progress. This includes a £37 million housing regeneration project for north Belfast that should deliver 123 new homes, said communities minister Deirdre Hargey. bit.ly/planner1221-Belfasthousing

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Leicester City Football Club has submitted a hybrid planning application for the expansion of its King Power Stadium to increase capacity by 8,000 seats to 40,000. bit.ly/planner1221-LCFCapplication

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MPs press government to engage with councils on net-zero to hit targets The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has urged the government to work with local government on a netzero delivery framework on areas such as planning and housing if it is to meet net zero by 2050. bit.ly/ planner1221-HCLGnetzero p

I M AG E S | I S T O C K / S H U T T E R S T O C K / L E I C E S T E R C I T Y F O O T B A L L C L U B

5 6 COP26: Anti-deforestation deal signed More than 100 world leaders representing 85 per cent of the world’s forests signed a deal that seeks to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030 at COP26. bit.ly/planner1221-forests

Revised planning fees iin n Scotland in prospect

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Executive reviews planning committee procedure ruled by judge as ‘unlawful’ A procedural practice adopted by planning committees across Northern Ireland on government advice is being reviewed by the Northern Ireland Executive following a High Court ruling that the practice was ‘unlawful’. bit.ly/planner1221-NIE

Wales needs to scale up renewable generation The Welsh Government has stressed that it wants to scale up renewable generation.

It has assembled a group of 17 experts, both within the sector and from outside, to identify what needs to be done to overcome any barriers. bit.ly/planner1221renewablegeneration

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The Scottish Government has has announced that it expects to to lay planning fees regulations ns before the Scottish Parliament ment by the end of the year. It has as also confirmed its commitmentt to planning reforms that should uld see the adoption of National Planning lanning Framework 4 by summer 2 2022.

022. bit.ly/planner1221-planningfees gffees

Government ‘is inconsistent on green jobs policy’ The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has warned that the UK Government’s policy on green jobs is 'inconsistent’e and a knowledge gap in necessary skills is resulting in missed opportunities. bit.ly/planner1221-greenjobs

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02/11/2021 11:26

LEADER COMMENT

Event 2022 could put planning policy on another level As I write, COP26 is continuing in Glasgow. Our very own Simon Wicks was present – as you’ll see later – but the full substance of the event was yet to be determined. Clearly the hope is that, when we look back at it from the year 2050, what is decided this November will prove significant for us all.

So then, it’s December 2021. Already. It’s a year that seems to have barely touched the sides what with the pace of events and their occurence during the ongoing pandemic. What, then, is set to shape our content in 2022? Beyond the COP26 output, it’s pretty clear that the concept of levelling up will loom large.

In this edition, Simon Wicks considers levelling up in detail. (he’s been particularly busy…) - and there is much to unpack. In a past political landscape, levelling up could have been seen as a rather left

Martin Read wing idea. This government, however, sees it as a tool to allow more social mobility.

New communities secretary Michael Gove’s four admittedly broadbrush bullet points detailing what levelling up entails are as follows: strengthening local leadership; raising living standards; improving public services; and enhancing people’s pride in the place they live. Worthy ideals all.

Of course, the first response to “strengthening local leadership” as

well as such phrases as “allowing communities and councillors to take back control” (as Gove said at at the Conservative party conference) is that they seem to require an equally necessary reintroduction of more strategic planning.

The good news is that Gove appears to have negotiated for himself the necessary free rein to influence other key government departments as well as his own, very sizeable new one. He’s already spoken about all government departments being involved in the levelling up agenda.

Could we genuinely be about to see the kind joined-up government thinking this scale of task demands? As it’s just about to be Christmas, let’s at least consider it a welcome

“HERE’S TO PLANNING MOVING FRONT AND CENTRE IN THE DEBATE”

possibility. And of course, while we still await the levelling up white paper, its impact on planning is likely to be significant. The topic is guaranteed to remain a prominent talking point in the months ahead.

So, this month’s edition: the implications of levelling up; the paused English planning reforms; and an early flavour of COP26. It is, we hope, a good picture of the current landscape as we enter what looks set to be another year of uncertainty and change. Here’s hoping planning moves front and centre in the debates ahead.

And in the meantime, season’s greetings to you all.

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LO U I S E B R O O K E ­ S M I T H O B E

O Opinion

1947 and all that If you were obliged to comply with 70-year-old regulations which were potentially out of kilter with current needs but still helped to serve a political purpose, would you call time?

If those regulations had good intentions but had manipulated people’s choices of how and where they lived, restricted growth in parts of the country and increased pressure on our infrastructure, would you say “enough”?

If told that there was a better way to achieve the fundamental principles behind those regulations, would you say, “OK, let’s take a look”? Or, on a point of fundamental political dogma, put your head in the sand?

Yes, I’m talking about the UK’s green belt. Think of it as an aged aunt. No one wants to suggest that she is past achieving what she could in her prime, and social services should be called in to reassess her capabilities. Instead, we are told that it’s better to keep her in situ, and not upset her.

While the Greater London Regional Planning Committee led the charge in 1935, it was the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 which allowed all local authorities to include green belt proposals in their development plans.

The rest is history.

But what else of note in 1947 has stood the test of time? We are not short of some memorable events and policies. Some shaped the subsequent decades, morphing to reflect changing attitudes, new markets, and a technological revolution.

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If the BBC had then shown an ‘end-of-the-year review’, the big political stories in 1947 would have included the birth of the National Health Service and nationalisation of the coal industry. In overseas news, Earl Mountbatten of Burma was appointed as the last Viceroy of India to oversee its independence, and that of Pakistan, and the British Army began to withdraw troops from Palestine.

In business, the first Oxfam charity shop opened, Europe’s first nuclear reactor started up in Harwell, near Oxford, and East Kilbride was designated Scotland’s first New Town.

In sport, Charlton Athletic won the FA cup and Tommy Lawton became Britain’s first £20,000 footballer and in royal news Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, watched by 400,000 TV viewers. In the arts, the Beeb would have

“IT MUST BE TIME TO MAKE SURE GREEN BELT DESIGNATIONS ARE FIT FOR PURPOSE” waxed lyrical about the first Edinburgh Festival and the predecessor of Gardeners’ Question Time was aired on the BBC’s Light Programme.

To bring things up to date, while there was a baby boom, the school leaving age rose to 15 and the University of Cambridge voted to allow women to become full students.

But while we are still enjoying, or enduring, the effects of some of the events of 1947, most have changed to remain relevant. The independence of India, and the subsequent success of, many Commonwealth nations

is an ever-moving picture. The National Coal Board ran its course. The baby boom came and went and even the Queen has kept up with technology and has a Facebook page.

I have been a tad selective in my 1947 highlights, but surely it’s time for the green belt to be reviewed?

What harm would it do for the SoS to show us he isn’t intimidated by those pulling political strings in the Shires.

He could keep the principles in place, leading with “thou must safeguard open spaces from inappropriate encroachment while supporting appropriate urban regeneration”, as opposed to “thou shalt not ever consider building on the defined GB for fear of upsetting the locals”.

Whether you are a CPRE stalwart and see the green belt as a means to address climate change, prevent urban sprawl and support wellbeing – or a Centre for Centres aficionado with the housing shortage as your trump card, it must be time to make sure green belt designations are fit for purpose. You never know – it could emerge stronger and far more effective.

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director

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09/11/2021 11:22

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“The National Care Service has the potential to be really powerful if the design and implementation are properly thought out and inclusive of those with lived and frontline experience of homelessness” VIKI FOX OF ALL IN FOR OR CHAN C CHANGE, HANGE GE,, ON PR PROPO PROPOSALS OPOSAL SALS S FOR A NATIONAL CARE SERVICE IN SCOTLAND BY ORGANISATIONS REPRESENTING THE COUNTRY’S HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS SECTORS

“Government needs to work with the energy industry to popularise a networked ground source heat pump where the cost of infrastructure is divorced from the pump” SIMON LOMAX OF MANUFACTURER KENSA PROPOSES A WAY OF DRIVING UP GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMP USE

I M A G E S | A L A M Y / S H U T T E R S T O C K / G E T T Y / U K PA R L I A M E N T

RICHARD DE CANI, GLOBAL PLANNER LEADER FOR ARUP, ON ITS SURVEY SUGGESTING FOUR OUT OF FIVE PEOPLE WANT S AND CITY LEADERS TO HAVE MORE POWERS TO THEIR MAYORS CUT CARBON EMISSIONS

SIR DAVID H ATTENBOROUGH P26 SPEAKING AT COP26

CLIVE BETTS, CHAIR OF THE HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE

“The announcement is a brownfieldfirst approach in all but name.

This is massively encouraging for [all those] who have fought to protect their local green spaces and to continue to have a say in the planning system.”

“Cities generate more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

While we need international and national policies, city leaders need more power to take action.”

“Is this how w our story is d? due to end? he A tale of the smartest species doomed lby that alln too-human tic characteristic o of failing to ger see the bigger n picture in pursuit off m short-term goals?”

“Local councils have a crucial role to play in ensuring there is a just transition and winning public trust for the changes needed on the path to net zero”

“Many of the actions necessary to tackle the climate crisis are also key in c creating housing in ecologically rich, prosperous and beautiful places for us and to our ffuture generations”

TOM FYANS, DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF CPRE, ENTHUSIASTICALLY ENDORSES BORIS JOHNSON’S VISION, AS EXPRESSED IN HIS SPEECH TO THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE

DR WEI YANG FRTPI, PRESIDENT OF THE RTPI, AT T THE LAUNCH OF THE RTPI AND TCPA’S JOINT PLANNING AND CLIMATE GUIDANCE

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B E S T O F T H E B LO G S

O Opinion

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Ken Hopkins is head of strategic land for homebuilder Mactaggart & Mickel

Time to take the politics out of planning with independent body

If there is one thing that any of us in the planning world know, it’s that successful reform of the system is a tough nut to crack.

Recent months have been a reminder that planning is still a political football, stalling proposed reforms: Michael Gove’s appointment as secretary for levelling up prompted reports of a rethink of last year’s planning white paper; then Boris Johnson waded in, telling the Conservative Party conference that he would be advocating homes on brownfield rather than greenfield sites.

The Chesham and Amersham by-election defeat, where planning reform dominated the campaign, prompted that change of heart on the white paper.

The future for planning reform is again uncertain, but what is beyond doubt is that we need to take the politics out of planning.

We need to stop the chopping and changing if we are to get near the government’s ambitions of delivering 300,000 new homes a year. The government should introduce an independent body to oversee the planning sector, to help our industry rise to the challenge of solving the UK’s housing crisis.

There is precedent in Ireland’s Office of the Planning Regulator – the state’s independent

Julie Foley is director of flood strategy and national adaptation for the Environment Agency

Good planning can help to tame the flood of climate change effects

oversight body for planning, set up to assess councils’ planning decisions. As well as ensuring local authorities implement planning policy, it drives research, training and public engagement in planning.

Here in the UK, clear direction is required because planning also has a vital role in providing the long-term stability to guide investment decisions.

But recent changes have created confusion.

There is too much tinkering at on a national level; at a local level, the government needs to avoid micromanagement of local authorities.

It should provide achievable, statutory, targets and then let local planning officials get on with it, whether it be on greenfield or brownfield sites.

One area that would merit independent scrutiny is green belt boundaries. There should be a requirement for existing boundaries to be examined for relevance as part of the review mechanism for local plans.

Finding a way to take politics out of planning will help us move forward. It would help to remove short-term pressures politicians face when making decisions about the long-term future of the communities they represent.

“GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROVIDE ACHIEVABLE TARGETS WHICH ARE STATUTORY OBLIGATIONS AND THEN LET LOCAL PLANNING OFFICIALS GET ON WITH IT”

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2 BLOG

BLOG

Getting the right kind of growth in the right places is one of the main ways to create climateresilient places. About 12 per cent of England is in the floodplain and 9,000km of our coast are at risk of sea flooding, erosion and landslips.

Effective spatial planning is essential for making land use choices that help to achieve greater flood and coastal resilience. That is why good placemaking is a central theme in the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England.

As a statutory planning consultee, the Environment Agency has a key role to play in advising planners and developers to avoid inappropriate development in flood risk areas and to enable climate-resilient development. In the last year, we provided flood risk advice on 7,000 applications, registering initial objections to around 2,500. Of those cases where we also recorded the local planning authority decision, over 97 per cent of them were decided in line with our advice. This helped prevent 30,000 homes being allowed in the floodplain in a potentially unsafe way.

We cannot prevent all flooding from happening, and

climate change means risks are increasing, but we can reduce consequences. We are likely to see double the number of properties in the floodplain over the next 50 years.

Predictions show that by 2050 we could see 59 per cent more winter rainfall and once-in -a-century sea-level events could become annual by 2100.

It is more important than ever for us to work with local partners to avoid unsafe development in risk areas. The RTPI and TCPA’s recent climate change guidance offers compelling advice on how local authorities can plan for climate change.

In July, government published a Review of Policy for Development in Areas at Flood Risk to which the Environment Agency contributed. This set out government actions, such as clarifications to the National Planning Policy Framework, to ensure the safety of new developments from flooding.

With planning reforms on the horizon, there are opportunities to maximise sustainable drainage systems, natural flood management and environmental net gain.

We need to start planning in earnest for the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

“WE CAN NEVER PREVENT ALL FLOODING FROM HAPPENING, AND CLIMATE CHANGE MEANS THE RISKS ARE INCREASING, BUT WE CAN REDUCE THE CONSEQUENCES”

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10/11/2021 11:50

Have your say Would you like to see yourself in these pages?

Get in touch by email – editorial@theplanner.co.uk Topical, inspirational, angry or amusing – we consider all relevant comment

3 BLOG

Joe Ridgeon is director of Hedley Planning Services

Planning policy needs to harness the winds of change

As government lays out its plans for a brighter, greener future in a move to cut greenhouse gas emissions, it’s time to consider changes to national planning policy if we are to deliver more of the small onshore wind turbine schemes the country will need to power the renewable energy revolution.

It should start with the NPPF and how its planning policies for England have to be applied.

Currently, onshore wind turbines cannot receive planning permission unless an area is identified as suitable for wind energy in a local or neighbourhood plan. In addition, it needs to be demonstrated that the planning impacts identified by the affected local community have been fully addressed.

Where a vocal minority is against, these restrictions can stop developments, regardless of whether the site is suitable.

A simple adjustment to introduce a presumption for wind turbines would unlock a huge opportunity for more small-scale wind turbine projects, helping to power growth in renewable energy.

The UK government has unveiled its ambitions for achieving net-zero, which would mean the UK no longer adding to the sum of greenhouse gases in the

4 BLOG

atmosphere. Surely now is the time for a policy rethink. Every farm and business with an appropriate site would be able to erect a wind turbine without worrying that planning will be the biggest risk to investment.

With the likelihood of prices soaring this winter, there’s yet more reason to rethink current policies towards energy generation if we are to create fresh interest in wind turbines.

Differentiating small turbines from larger wind farms and understanding the benefits and low visual impact they bring could be hugely significant.

Moreover, rural landowners would be able to return energy control to UK businesses, helping them to become more competitive on the back of a reduced carbon footprint and improved UK energy security.

A boost for renewable energy projects can provide enough power for landowners and farmers to power their own homes and reduce their carbon footprint: we recently secured planning approval for such a scheme in Northumberland that provides a blueprint for other projects. Harnessing the wind is an efficient way to supply clean energy and contribute towards the renewable energy solutions we will increasingly turn towards.

“A SIMPLE ADJUSTMENT TO INTRODUCE A PRESUMPTION FOR WIND TURBINES WOULD UNLOCK A HUGE OPPORTUNITY”

Estelle Dehon is a barrister with Cornerstone Barristers

Cows on pylons? A planner’s view of COP26

The famously irreverent Glaswegian sense of humour was on full display during week one of COP26 as posters appeared throughout the city suggesting what the acronym might mean – my favourite was “Cows on Pylons”.

The 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is a number of processes folded around each other. At the centre are UN negotiations, by country delegations in the Blue Zone, hammering out the rules for operationalising the Paris agreement. These are encircled by: political agreements, spearheaded by the UK as the COP Presidency; and oversight by NGOs and others, to ensure transparency.

Wrapped around that are activists, entrepreneurs and organisations exhibiting in the Green Zone and marching in the streets of Glasgow.

Political announcements have grabbed headlines: an agreement to end global deforestation, a pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent (here are the cows); another to phase out use of coal-fired power (the pylons).

There has been a slew of netzero pledges, resulting in an announcement that, if each were met, global warming

would be limited to 1.8°C. That came in for much criticism, because the ‘UN Synthesis Report’ of the commitments in countries’ ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ (ie, the formal mechanisms under Paris) shows emissions incresing to 2030, meaning we remain on a path to 2.7°C of heating: catastrophic climate change. The first COP takeaway for planners is that the need for urgent domestic action, in light of impacts we will all experience, is as strong as ever.

The second is to do with money.

The UK announced it would become the world’s first netzero aligned financial centre, which will require climate-related disclosure obligations and greater focus on climate risk. This may prompt a faster shift to zeroemission buildings. The negotiations will also set rules for carbon markets, which will affect how farming and air travel decarbonise.

There are announcements on zero-emission transport and the built enironment to come. The formal UN negotiations are also set to include incorporating adaptation into planning. This could push the UK into earlier action on amendments to the NPPF, foreshadowed in the Net Zero Strategy.

“THE UK ANNOUNCED IT WOULD BECOME THE WORLD’S FIRST NET­ ZERO ALIGNED FINANCIAL CENTRE”

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COP26 CLIMATE CONFERENCE

FOLLOWING THE RTPI YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE IN EDINBURGH (SEE PAGE 7), THE PLANNER’S DEPUTY EDITOR SIMON WICKS HEADED WEST WITH HIS CAMERA AND NOTEBOOK FOR THE OPENING DAYS OF THE COP26 CLIMATE CONFERENCE. HERE ARE HIS POSTCARDS FROM GLASGOW TO PLANNER EDITOR MARTIN READ

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COP26 CLIMATE CONFERENCE

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Coming soon…

Our 2022 awards will open in January www.rtpi.org.uk/excellence

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03/11/2021 16:23

COP26 CLIMATE CONFERENCE

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02/11/2021 11:28

“YOU NEED PLANNING TO HELP DELIVER LEVELLING UP”

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F E AT U R E : LEVELLING­UP AND PLANNING

Level

P EGGING THE DEPARTMENT FOR LEVELLING UP: WHAT DOES IT MEAN, WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM AND CAN PLANNING PREVENT IT FROM TURNING INTO AN ENORMOUS GAME OF SNAKES AND LADDERS, ASKS SIMON WICKS

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n September the prime minister announced that the government department formerly known as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government would now be called the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

This change embeds an aspiration, long touted by Boris Johnson, that his administration would endeavour to “level up” the economically and socially lopsided United Kingdom.

With searing inequalities exposed by Brexit and Covid, and a need to retain ‘red wall’ seats, it has become an urgent matter.

To date, though, little flesh has been put on the levelling-up bones. Instead, ‘levelling up’ has remained an ill-defined but positivesounding slogan that can mean whatever the onlooker wants it to mean.

Now, it seems, is the time to define and deliver. The person given that task – Michael Gove – may be one of few senior Conservative MPs able to pull it off.

“I'm more hopeful now that Michael Gove is in charge,” says Catriona Riddell MRTPI, strategic planning convenor for the Planning Officers Society and a freelance planning consultant. “He's a very shrewd operator and I think he gets a lot of what we've been talking about [with regard to strategic planning].”

“Over the last 10 years, most secretaries of state were there to fix the short-term solution and tick that box on housing numbers,” continues Riddell, “whereas Michael Gove is a strategic thinker and he joins the dots much more.”

There are significant matters to address, across the gamut of geography, income and wealth distribution, health, education and public investment in transport and other infrastructure.

At the Conservative Party conference, Gove described the government’s levelling-up priorities in general terms, as being to: • Strengthen local leadership • Raise living standards • Improve public services • Give people the resources to enhance their “pride” in the place they live.

If and when levelling up arrives, this gives no insight into the means of its arrival.

A view of the board There are clues to Gove’s thinking. Planning reforms identified in Robert Jenrick’s flagship white paper have been suspended following the by-election loss of the previously safe Chesham and Amersham seat. This was interpreted as a protest against planning reform and what some saw as the tyranny of housing numbers imposed from above.

Related to this, Boris Johnson declared that his government would end greenfield development and focus on brownfield. As an MP of a Surrey constituency with acute housing anxieties, it’s fair to assume Gove is sympathetic. The levelling-up secretary has also been quoted as wishing to end the government’s obsession with housing numbers and BDOnline reported that, in his party conference speech, he saw his job as “allowing communities to take back control of their futures, creating greener and more

I L L U S T R AT I O N | N E I L S T E V E N S

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FEATURE: LEVELLING­UP AND PLANNING

Intentions begin to come into beautiful places to live”. focus. But, however good they may In October, too, The Times reported be, money is always a barrier to what Gove saying that government would shift can be achieved. Three funds to date housebuilding away from the South East have distributed cash to projects with a and to the North and Midlands. Inside levelling-up character: the Levelling Up Housing noted that he had declared war Fund, Local Growth Fund and UK Shared on the “scandalously poor” quality, and Prosperity Fund. provision, of social housing and implied But these have been dogged by that he would create incentives for social criticism and controversy: they require housing providers to improve both. competitive bids, which may put the Gove’s new powers and appointments more resource-stretched authorities offer clues to his intentions. He has taken at a disadvantage; and there have from the Cabinet Office responsibility for been suggestions that MPs the constitution and the union, have used these funds to giving his new department “MICHAEL funnel money into their own significant scope to reshape the GOVE IS A constituencies. political landscape.

Moreover, in August He’s recruited Andy Haldane, STRATEGIC former chief economist of THINKER AND Prospect Magazine reported on a Joseph Rowntree the Bank of England, to lead HE JOINS Foundation research finding a ‘levelling-up task force’.

THE DOTS Haldane has previously urged MUCH MORE” that the three funds together in fact represent “a cut in local a “fundamental rethink of growth spending from £4.7 devolution practices”. billion per year to just £1.4 Significantly, he’s delegated to billion in 2021/22 and £2.7 MP Neil O’Brien responsibility billion after that”. for a levelling-up white paper.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Cities A policy specialist, O’Brien wrote a has compared the task of levelling 2020 paper for Boris Johnson putting up the UK to that of closing the gap the case for levelling up. He also led between East and West Germany postthe revolt against the ‘mutant’ housing reunification. This has cost roughly €71 algorithm and, as MP for Harborough in billion a year and €2 trillion to date.

Leicestershire, has campaigned against Where will the cash come from? greenfield development. He has even O’Brien is an advocate of attacked “land speculators” for making government harnessing “easy money” from “gaming” the private sector cash to planning system.

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deliver public goods. But investors will need powerful incentives if these figures are realistic. What’s more, levelling up cannot involve any element of levelling down. Any sense that cash is being diverted from more prosperous areas will be met with the kind of opposition that lost the Amersham seat.

Financial snakes and planning ladders “You need planning to help deliver levelling up,” stresses Victoria Hills FRTPI, the RTPI chief executive. Other professions are essential, too, but “the bit that can help you to level up is having a clear spatial strategy about where you’re going to put things, where you’re going to attract investment into the area, what sorts of development you’re going to have where, and being clear as to what is and isn’t acceptable in your ambitions to improve quality of life”.

The DLUHC itself insists that planning and housing “sit at the heart of the levelling-up agenda”. The Planner asked several politicians for comment, but none was forthcoming. DLUHC supplied this quote: “We are delivering more high-quality, greener homes [and] prioritising brownfield land to transform derelict areas into vibrant local communities.

“At the same time our work to digitise the planning system is helping ensure people have a say in their local area and we are championing beautiful design through the introduction of the National Model Design Code so everyone can have pride in the place they call home.”

This last point moves us in a key direction: both Hills and Riddell are adamant that a rebalancing of the UK economy cannot happen without devolution of decision-making powers.

“For me, it’s about devolution of some national planning powers to city regional areas and devolution of governance, which enables elected mayors to put together a comprehensive spatial approach to how we’re going to improve the area,” says Hills, citing Manchester’s spatial framework as an example.

Devolution in what form, though?

Riddell sees devolution and levelling up as indivisible, noting that while it is fairly clear how devolution will work in a city region or a unitary authority, two-tier authorities present a challenge.

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“In some places, you've got big unitaries, districts and the county and a big area to cover, So how does it work?

Where does the power sit?

“There’s still a reluctance in twotier areas to take on that extra layer,” Riddell continues. “It’s demonstrated in Cambridgeshire that it doesn’t work, having the mayor on top of a two-tier area with Peterborough, a unitary, involved as well. It’s made it far more difficult to know who’s making decisions and who’s accountable for funding.”

Riddell is conscious of the capacity of spatial planning to resolve the structural issues associated with, say, housing, transport and infrastructure. How then does devolution sit with the parochial approach advocated by Gove when he speaks of communities as the ultimate “arbiters” of planning permission?

One can perhaps see how running a zoning system alongside local design codes is one way to close the gap.

“I think you can still have the community involved at a citywide or regional level,” says Hills. “It doesn’t have to be at a neighbourhood level. They can absolutely be represented, and Andy Burnham [in Manchester] has a model of how he’s doing it there so communities don’t feel circumvented yet they’ve all signed up to this much broader strategy.”

Riddell picks up the theme: “Spatial development strategies have to have unanimous support,” she asserts. But, “to do anything like this needs a stronger pitch in terms of decision-making”.

“It’ll be interesting to see whether it [levelling up] is decentralisation or devolution. The debate at the moment is very much around, if it’s going to work it has to be devolution and it has to be devolution of funding and real powers.

For me, there are also issues around is this purely about growth, or will it stray into things like social care?”

Resources, resources For Riddell, for levelling up to work in concert with the planning system, the latter needs freeing from unnecessary encumbrances. What’s needed is a greater “choreography”.

“There’s a huge amount of this type of support and growth that can take place outside of the planning system, although the planning system is absolutely essential to delivering a lot of it, local

What is levelling up?

Until a white paper puts some flesh on the bones, levelling up is all things to all people. Michael Gove has spoken about levelling up in broad, sweeping terms characterised by four priorities (see article).

Victoria Hills sees levelling up in terms of the relationship between people and place. “[It’s] about outcomes and quality of life,” she says. “And quality of life is partly where you live, so it’s home and it’s access to great amenities, in a way that doesn’t cost you time or money to get to them. It’s also access to

plans particularly. But decisions around housing numbers, around infrastructure funding, even things like where the growth happens, where the major regeneration is.”

In the absence of an “overarching spatial strategy”, she laments, “everybody at a micro-level has to deliver the growth”.

“My hope is that the government is listening to strong voices out there about taking the heat out of the system and taking some of these decisions upwards into some sort of devolution process so these difficult political decisions are made through county deals or devolution deals. This allows local plans to get on and deliver.”

As for Hills, she sees an important role for both the Office for Place, charged with overseeing improvements to the built environment, and for chief planning officers. Both can bridge the gap between large and small-scale concerns.

Chief placemakers in particular can be central figures in coordinating the planning aspects of levelling up. “Having gone to the trouble of improving the planning system, if you haven’t got a top chief calling the shots, then are you going to get as much bang for your buck?” Hills asks. “I would be very disappointed if they don’t recognise the opportunity for that position to drive forward some of this change.”

We are back to choreography: of decision-making powers;

education and employment... and to things that help keep us healthy.

“All of this can be joined together through a strong spatial framework and thinking about quality placemaking, really going back to the origins of town planning.”

For Catriona Riddell, levelling up and devolution are two different ways of talking about the same thing. “I think of levelling up in very much the same way as devolution; it’s about giving more power locally to do things to improve the area better.”

of policy, plans and investment; of national, regional and local needs.

These are all subject to a different kind of choreography happening within government itself – the endless political dance for power, for funds, for favour.

What would Hills ask Gove for if she could? “Resources, resources. Speak to any developer, landowner, anybody who has any interface with the private sector, and you’ll not find one of them who isn’t willing to pay more for a better service.”

Some local planning departments are “not far off life support”, she notes, and struggling to deliver statutory services, let alone the vision of rebalancing a nation. Levelling up, it seems, is likely to be a long, expensive and unpredictable journey, with as many snakes as ladders along the road. n Simon Wicks is deputy editor of The Planner

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A CABINET RESHUFFLE HAS PUT PLANNING REFORM ON PAUSE AS MINISTERS THINK THROUGH THEIR OPTIONS. HUW MORRIS REPORTS ON THE LOBBYING THAT IS TRYING TO INFLUENCE THEM

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t was not the best of messages. Just after the Conservative Party conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was photographed holidaying at a luxury villa on Spain’s Costa Del Sol, paintbrush in hand. Meanwhile, much of the UK was struggling with lengthy queues at petrol stations, empty shelves in supermarkets, a continuing HGV driver shortage, an escalating energy crisis and millions fearing an increase in the cost of living.

At the same time, and less well covered by the national press, parts of England’s planning system were spun into confusion, thanks to the decision by new levelling-up and communities secretary Michael Gove to pause and rethink controversial reforms that had unsettled Tory backbenchers. These reforms are partly blamed for the Conservatives’ morale-sapping defeat at the Chesham and Amersham by-election, and may well have got Gove’s predecessor Robert Jenrick the sack.

Johnson’s speech to the conference contributed to the

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confusion: “You can also see how much room there is to build the homes that young families need in this country not on green fields, not just jammed in the South East, but beautiful homes on brownfield sites in places where homes make sense.”

Within days, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council had cancelled its cabinet planning and parking and special council meetings. These were due to discuss its unpopular local plan. Members wrote to Gove seeking “urgent clarification” in the light of Johnson’s remarks (see box overleaf, ‘Welwyn’s questions’). Ashfield District Council is also pausing work on its draft local plan.

So what is the rethink about? And what are the smoke signals so far?

No-go zones At the Conservative Party conference, the message from ministers was that plans for a zonal system with automatic development rights in growth and renewal

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The PM focused on the potential of brownfield land in his Conservative Conference speech

Welwyn’s questions Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has asked Michael Gove to explain what Johnson’s remarks mean for future planning policy. The borough must find sites for 15,200 homes “We have long expressed our resistance to overdevelopment in the borough and made it clear that we feel a target of 15,200 homes for Welwyn Hatfield is too high,” says Stephen boulton, executive member for planning. “That is the expressed view of all political groups, and of our communities.

“We were intrigued by the prime minister’s reference in his conference speech to not wanting to build on ‘green fields’, and we are now seeking the answer to two specific questions.

“Firstly, is there a possibility of further discussion on the target figure for new homes? And secondly, do the comments suggest a change to planning policy in the near future?”

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areas will be “watered down”. There will also be “less emphasis” on the 300,000 homes annual target, a government shibboleth of recent years. What “watered down” and “less emphasis” would mean was only vaguely hinted at.

Local authorities could retain the power to approve individual applications in development zones, according to one idea mooted to delegates.

One clue was given by new housing minister Eddie Hughes, who told a meeting of party activists that “planning is first and foremost a local responsibility – it’s important that it stays that way, that local councils who know their areas determine what planning is allowed”.

The pause now means that backbenchers see an open door to influence ministers’ thinking. Some ideas are already on the table. Many are linked to localism and how to give communities incentives to back development.

The first comes courtesy of think tanks New Local and the New Social Covenant Unit – the latter established this year by MPs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger, Gove’s parliamentary private secretary, This goes by the moniker of “community-powered Conservatism”. It is backed by 10 Conservative MPs elected in 2019, with the clarion call that it is time for the party to “trust the people”.

Gove introduced a pamphlet setting out

this agenda at the conference.

Billed as “the next stage of the Conservative story”, under this “new vision for levelling up”, communities and businesses are given power and money to strengthen their economies, improve public services and build better places to live. Arguing that “money does not solve all problems, and if invested poorly there is a risk that it creates new grievances”, the MPs urge the government to reform public and private sectors to make sure power is “put into the hands of communities and people who have the expertise and commitment to turn places around”.

To unlock the broader potential of community power, the Conservatives must embark on an “ambitious programme of devolution and reform”.

This means not only ceding power from Whitehall to councils, but from councils to communities. This “double devolution” would be underscored by “community covenants”, signed between councils and local people to ensure power is shared.

It states that trusting the people “means making neighbourhood planning universal and the ultimate arbiter of local development”, but is light on details for how to ahieve this.

People power “Community power is the logical conclusion of Brexit,” says Broadland MP Jerome Mayhew, one of the 10 behind the campaign. “People who voted ‘leave’ in 2016 voted to take back control not just of our borders and laws, but of our communities and society itself.

“We need to do more than pass power from Brussels to Whitehall to town halls. We need to empower the practical people who live, work and can make a difference in local places.”

The Social Market Foundation is another think tank throwing its hat into the ring. Its big idea is to allow residents to vote on whether to accept development close to their homes.

Its latest policy – written by John Myers, of the PricedOut and YIMBY Alliance campaigns – argues that England’s planning system creates “gridlock” because it gives too much power to planning authorities, and offers too little opportunity for

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P L A N N I N G R E FO R M S

neighbours to find “win-win” ‘yes’ because they “COMMUNITY solutions that protect the see the gains for their POWER IS interests of residents while community.”

THE LOGICAL also creating new housing.

Other contenders CONCLUSION OF Inspired by Nobel Prizefor Gove’s in-tray are BREXIT” winning economists Elinor ideas to incentivise Ostrom and Ronald Coase, communities to Myers suggests that a system accept developments. that encourages developers Some observers and residents to strike argue that these have mutually beneficial bargains been debated for could be a way forward. years and it is unclear what these Rather than expecting the potential incentives could be. Another old losers of planning reform to accept chestnut is encouraging developers their losses without protest, such an to build where they have planning approach would seek to ensure that new permission. development proceeds “in a way that However, one observer said this benefits most stakeholders”. (See box, might have been just “a show of ‘Ideas for incentivising development’). red meat” to councillors at the Such calls also have heavyweight conference who have long Conservative backing. cited the Local Government “This is not about being a Tory, a Association’s complaint NIMBY or political-point scoring. It that 1.1 million of the is about providing millions of people homes granted planning across our country with hope for their permission in the past futures,” says Wycombe MP Steve Baker. decade have yet to be built.

“We cannot continue with our current For his part, as a former planning system. Costs and disbenefits parliamentary whip, Hughes are imposed on individuals without told party activists that he is adequate inclusion in the process “completely attuned to the fact” or adequate compensation being that the government needs to be provided. We need to give the public mindful of “the pragmatics of getting the opportunity to say ‘no’ to planning bills through Parliament, regardless proposals, but the incentives to say of the size of its majority”

Ideas for incentivising development A simple car ride reveals plenty of evidence that the planning system is “broken”, according to Conservative MP for Buckingham Greg Smith.

“Driving through our villages, signs proclaiming ‘no to xxx houses’ or ‘no new development here’ are commonplace – and politicians ignore that at our peril,” he says. “This is especially the case when we know the reality of local opposition to

developments negotiated at distance will end up being passed by allegedly democratic bodies citing ‘spatial strategies’, ‘visions’ and ‘local plans’.”

Smith backs four ideas suggested by the Social Market Foundation that the government should pursue in its reforms: • Devolving power to village residents to allow more development next to their communities; • ‘Street votes’, where

residents of a stretch of road can set out rules to allow for more extensions or other development; • ‘Mews votes’, where residents of housing around waste land can approve development on that land; • Allowing residents of a street to allow an additional floor behind a mansard roof to fill gaps or to vote for a uniform permission for such roofs to be built.

Gove’s debut Michael Gove’s debut as levelling-up and communities secretary in Parliament gave some clues to his thinking.

As the government takes forward planning reforms, it will be balancing the need for new housing with environmental concerns and “the vital importance of listening to local people”.

He told MPs “one thing we want to do is to make sure that the voice of local people is integrated more effectively into planning decisions”.

He added: “Across the country, many people would welcome new housing development enthusiastically if they had the assurance of knowing that there was sufficient investment in infrastructure to ensure that public services and other utilities were there for them so that additional pressure was not applied unequally.”

Gove agreed with communities committee chair Clive Betts that local plans need to be at the heart of the planning system. Answering Betts’s question on whether local people should be able to object to individual applications, Gove said: “I certainly welcome that direction of travel.”

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C A S E S T U D Y : A F FO R D A B LE H O U S I N G

North Norfolk has one of the most acute needs for affordable housing outside of London

BROAD ACCEPTANCE ONE HOUSING ASSOCIATION HAS IDENTIFIED AN OPPORTUNITY – MADE POSSIBLE FROM CHANGES TO NATIONAL PLANNING POLICY – TO MEET LOCAL HOUSING NEEDS THROUGH AN INGENIOUS MIXED TENURE SCHEME. RACHEL MASKER EXPLAINS

Award: Excellence in Planning to Deliver Small Homes Project name: North Norfolk District Wide Affordable Housing Strategy entered by Broadland Housing Association.

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A row of new homes stands on the edge of Great Ryburgh in North Norfolk, offering views of green fields beyond. With gable porches and artisan brick and clay tiles, the modest homes look well designed.

England regional awards. This year it It’s not an unusual sight – except for has been the RTPI’s national Award the fact they are socially rented, transfor Planning Excellence that has forming the lives of local people most recognised the ingenuity of Broadland’s in need of housing. In the absence strategy. of government grants, the enterprisWorking with partners North Norfolk ing Broadland Housing Association District Council and local parish has found a new way to build more councils, Broadland has been able high-quality homes. to create sustainable, inclusive, rural The properties are part of an innocommunities. vative mixed tenure scheme that has delivered 61 affordable homes across HOUSING NEED AND five villages – Binham, Trunch, ErpAFFORDABILITY ingham. Edgefield and Great Ryburgh North Norfolk has one of the most – that are all linked by one section acute needs for affordable housing 106 agreement. The sale outside London. Second of market homes has homeowners wanting funded affordable housto escape to the couning, with 45 homes being tryside have pushed up “EACH SITE HAD social rented and 16 in property prices, leaving ITS OWN FEEL shared ownership. home ownership out of AND SO WE TRIED The scheme was first reach for many who grew TO MATCH THE declared a winner at up in the area. According SITE WITH THE the 2020 RTPI East of to property listing portal ARCHITECT”

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Rightmove, the average local people is a chal“THERE IS A VERY home in Ryburgh costs lenge.”

SMALL PRIVATE £396,400 compared with Andrew Savage, RENTAL MARKET £314,000 in Norwich, executive development HERE WHICH IS TOO director of Broadland the nearest city. A quick EXPENSIVE FOR search on Rightmove for Housing Association, LOCAL PEOPLE” rented accommodation in explained: “We have a North Norfolk reveals just booming holiday trade a handful of properties which, of course, brings available after market money and work but towns are removed. also removes housing.

As in much of rural It’s a very difficult balEngland, house prices are high and ance. That’s why this type of project is incomes low. But cuts to governso important – and it was recognised ment grants for affordable housing, that the model that was used in this the impact of Right to Buy plus the instance not only increased housing increase in second homes and holiday stock but was also able to produce a lets has created North Norfolk’s own quantity of affordable housing that housing crisis. Councillor Wendy Fredwould not have been built.” ericks, portfolio holder for housing and benefits, said: “There is a very small NATIONAL POLICY MEETING private rental market here which is too LOCAL NEED expensive for local people. The desperSavage identified an opportunity preate need to build affordable housing for sented by changes in the National

W H AT T H E JUDGES SAID

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The judges were particularly impressed by this entry as they had not seen affordable housing delivered in this way.

They praised the Broadland Housing Association for finding effective solutions to the funding gap they were faced with, and were also impressed by the way these solutions demonstrated a link between national and local planning policy and the delivery of schemes which had a strong focus on the provision of affordable housing.

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This allowed surplus monies from one village to help finance affordable housing within another.” A simple change – but it meant that they could develop a district-wide strategy to deliver more affordable housing.

Five sites were chosen where the council owned land. Property values were higher in some than others. Profits from the sale of private homes in high-value villages cross-subsidised affordable housing in low-value areas.

All five planning applications had to be submitted and determined at the same time, a mammoth task. Building work started in 2017, with the final site completed in 2020. In total, the scheme delivered 96 properties – 63 per cent of them affordable. Savage credits planning consultant Iain Hill, partner at Bidwells, for helping to make the scheme happen.

“He found a way of turning an idea into planning reality.”

REMOVING STIGMA The houses have the traditional feel of North Norfolk, with contemporary touches

Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to better exploit rural exception site policy and, against the odds, build more affordable homes. Although the district council had a rural exception site policy, it excluded market homes and limited the number of dwellings to fewer than 10.

Traditionally, only affordable homes could be built on rural exception sites. Under the NPPF (2012), councils could consider allowing some market housing to facilitate the delivery of significant affordable housing. This opportunity had not, at the time, been explored by the council. Savage wanted to push the envelope.

The housing association boss said: “Exception site policy had been about individual villages and the supply of housing to that village. What the Broadland team negotiated was a single section 106 across all five locations.

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M I X E D PA L E T T E All five sites are in visually sensitive locations on the edge of villages, some in conservation areas and others close to the North Norfolk Area of Outstanding National Beauty.

The houses are traditionally built, using local artisan skills where possible. A mixed palette of materials was chosen to respond to individual contexts. For example, the focus in Bodham is on flint walls while Trunch features black timber cladding.

The scheme includes air source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels. For a housing association, affordable warmth was a priority, said Savage.

“All properties have been built with a fabric-first approach to minimise energy loss and consumption of heating.”

Historically, Broadland had experienced significant opposition at the consultation stage from locals concerned about affordable housing being built in their villages. Design was often raised as an issue, so in a bid to improve it Broadland hired architects from three different firms: Ingleton Wood, Hudson Architects and Parsons Whitney (now retired).

“Each site had its own feel and so we tried to match the site with the architect,” said Savage.

The design-led approach helped to smooth the process. The affordable, energy-efficient houses (there are no flats) range from one to three-bedroom, including family homes and

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C A S E S T U D Y : A F FO R D A B LE H O U S I N G One woman was able to return to her home village to rent a house near her elderly mother’s bungalow

“THE SECTION 106 IN THIS CASE IS PROTECTING THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN PERPETUITY AND GIVING A FRAMEWORK OF BOUNDARIES OF THE MODEL”

bungalows for elderly and disabled people.

Although the houses have the traditional feel of North Norfolk, contemporary touches have been added. Perhaps the most remarkable feature is the lack of any visible distinction between social rent and market homes, reducing the stigma of affordable housing. The same materials and layouts were used, regardless of tenure, while affordable homes were scattered across developments, helping to avoid a visible ‘them and us’ scenario.

All those housed in the 61 affordable homes were on the council’s housing waiting list and had an existing local

connection, either through family or work. Family support networks have been helped. For instance, one daughter was able to return to the village where she grew up; she now rents a house that backs onto her elderly mother’s existing bungalow.

A council spokesman said the district-wide strategy had maximised

the number of desperately needed affordable homes and strengthened rural communities.

“We would certainly consider this approach again, though unfortunately the council no longer has any land left to support such a project.”

Civic-minded landowners are being urged to get in touch with the council to explore funding solutions.

A WAY FORWARD?

The homes are built using local artisan skills

The Broadland development team is not aware of this model being used in other parts of the UK – but it believes that the relatively simple framework can be adopted elsewhere.

Could government proposals to abolish section 106 agreements scupper similar schemes? Savage remains optimistic.

“The section 106 in this case is protecting the affordable housing in perpetuity and giving a framework of boundaries of the model. It is not the same as a standard 106, so even if abolished in name another document would be required to do the same thing using (rural) exception site planning policy.”

All in all, Savage sees the RTPI award as a powerful endorsement of the scheme’s structure.

“It is fantastic for us to receive national recognition for delivering a very local solution.”

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CASES &DECISIONS

A N A LY S E D B Y M A T T M O O D Y / A P P E A L S @ T H E P L A N N E R . C O . U K

24-year old plan policies deemed not out of date In refusing permission for 150 homes on countryside land near Darlington, an inspector ruled that the relevant policies in the council’s local plan were ‘broadly consistent’ with the NPPF despite being adopted in 1997.

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Jenny Wigley QC is a barrister at Landmark Chambers

She was not satisfied by the appellant’s proposals for a new footway, noting concerns cited by the local highways authority. Rejecting the appellant’s suggestion of a pre-occupation condition, she dismissed the appeal.

LOCATION: Darlington AUTHORITY: Darlington Borough Council INSPECTOR: Susan Hunt PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/N1350/W/21/3271227

( “The inspector in this case was concerned about points raised by the highways authority regarding the physical ability to construct a safe and adequate footway connection to the site and the possibility that third­party land might be needed. There were constraints on the existing verges and a lack of clarity as to the extent to which they could be freed up by the relocation of telegraph poles, street lighting columns and the like. Against this uncertainty, and given the scale of the development, she was not minded to accept a footway connection with a width of just 1.8 metres (which is the absolute minimum in the CIHT guidance Designing for Walking). ( “Similarly, the inspector found it unclear how distances to facilities had been measured and was troubled by the appellant’s reliance on new pedestrian links that were part of a nearby permitted development, when there was no assurance as to when those would be delivered. ( “Against these uncertainties, she was not prepared to accept that a pre­occupation condition would be a satisfactory way

of dealing with the matter.

This is understandable as it would give rise to a risk of all the houses being built and then unable to be occupied.

( “But, had this been discussed at a hearing or inquiry, it may have been possible to resolve some of the uncertainties, or the appellant may at least have been able to respond to the concern about a pre­occupation condition by offering a pre­ commencement, Grampian­ style condition. ( “Where there are uncertainties about whether the requirements of a condition can be met, the latter route avoids the risk of a local planning authority being faced with an unsatisfactory choice: either to allow the development to be occupied without meeting the sustainable travel requirements, or accept that there will be a large, built development standing empty indefinitely. ( "If there is uncertainty about an issue but some chance that it could be able to be resolved, a true Grampian condition (pre­commencement, not pre­occupation) is a useful offer that might just have got a permission over the line in this case.”

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The appellants, developers Bellway Homes and Lateral Investments, sought outline permission to build 150 homes near Darlington.

However, the scheme was contrary to the Darlington Local Plan, adopted in 1997.

Although its policies were “somewhat restrictive in their ‘closed list’ of types of development which would not be supported in the countryside”, noted inspector Susan Hunt, the plan “broadly reflected” the aims of the NPPF, despite its age.

This, along with the council’s large housing land supply of 17 years, meant the ‘tilted balance’ of NPPF paragraph 11(d) was not engaged.

Although the inspector found some harm would arise from the scheme’s urbanising effects on the landscape, she ruled that this could be “adequately mitigated through careful design and landscaping at the reserved matters stage”.

Hunt was more critical of the site’s accessibility, however. Although vehicular access to the A1(M) and the town centre would be relatively straightforward, she noted, access to local services by “non-motorised users” would be more difficult.

EXPERT COMMENT

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40 or so appeal reports are posted each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions. Our Decisions Digest newsletter, sponsored by Landmark Chambers, is sent out every Monday. Sign up: bit.ly/planner-newsletters

Replacement of 20-year old Southwark building rejected Plans to replace a four-storey building in Southwark approved only 20 years ago with a 10-storey block offering a net gain of six homes were rejected by an inspector, who was unconvinced by the scheme’s design.

LOCATION: Southwark

Air source heat pumps can remain if painted black Enforcement action against two air source heat pumps installed at a property in Leeds has been quashed by an inspector, who found that the visual impact of the pumps could be made acceptable by painting them black.

This appeal concerned a detached property in Gledhow, Leeds. In March, the council ordered the removal of two wallmounted air source heat pumps to the rear of the house.

Inspector J A Murray noted that permitted development rules only allow one pump to be installed per property.

He therefore considered whether to grant retrospective permission under appeal ground (a).

The property had been “substantially” extended and altered, the inspector noted, and now appeared “quite different” from its neighbours. The pumps themselves had a “somewhat overbearing impact” on the occupiers of the nearest property, he found, because of their “predominantly white” colour – which “contrasted markedly” with the black finish of the extension.

The appellant referred to the council’s declaration of a climate emergency in pointing out the benefits of a lowcarbon heat source. But Murray agreed with the LOCATION: Gledhow council’s assessment that, given the small scale of AUTHORITY: Leeds City Council the scheme, this attracted only moderate weight.

INSPECTOR: J A Murray In the planning balance, the inspector noted that PROCEDURE: Written submissions although the council wanted the pumps to be DECISION: Notice quashed removed, it acknowledged that painting them black REFERENCE: APP/ would “visually reduce N4720/C/21/3272756 their appearance”. With a condition in place to secure the painting work, the benefits of the pumps would outweigh the visual impact, he ruled.

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AUTHORITY: Southwark Borough Council

INSPECTOR: Rory MacLeod PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ A5840/W/20/3261317

The appeal concerned a building with ground-floor commercial space and four storeys above, providing 11 flats. The appellant sought permission to demolish the building to make way for a 10-storey block with 17 flats.

Inspector Rory MacLeod noted that although the existing building was recent, it had “limited design merit”, and that the council had not objected to its replacement.

But, although he praised the design approach of the scheme, the inspector criticised the “height and massing” of the proposed development, noting in

particular the “sharp change” from four to 10 storeys.

MacLeod acknowledged the existence of a masterplan for an area abutting the appeal site which included plans for buildings of 27 and 39 storeys. Although not of any formal planning status, the plan was a material consideration, he said.

However, he found that although the area close to the appeal site was likely to be developed, details and timings remained uncertain.

The site’s location within the designated central activities zone (CAZ) meant a “a more intensive use of the site was appropriate”, but any proposals still needed to be weighed against current policy for tall buildings, he added, noting that although the appeal scheme would be 10 centimetres below the 30-metre definition used by the Greater London Authority for “tall buildings”, it would still be notably taller than its surroundings.

Not convinced that the scheme cleared the bar for design quality required of tall buildings under local and national policy, MacLeod dismissed the appeal.

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C&D { C Reserve energy facility would be reliant on fossil fuels An inspector has rejected plans for a ‘flexible energy facility’ at a business park in Sussex, ruling that the facility’s reliance on fossil fuels was not compatible with the council’s declaration of a climate emergency.

350-home scheme wins approval after virtual inquiry An inspector has granted outline permission for 350 homes on undeveloped land near Fareham, after dismissing concerns relating to the scheme’s impact on nearby protected habitats sites, the area’s road network, and listed buildings.

The appellant, Miller Homes, had sought outline permission to build 350 homes on the edge of Fareham, Hampshire.

The council had been concerned about the scheme’s impact on local roads, in particular a vehicle and pedestrian bridge over a nearby railway line. During an adjournment of the inquiry, the appellant submitted amendments relating to signal controls at the bridge which led the council to withdraw its opposition on

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highways grounds.

Inspector A J Mageean still considered the issue, noting that interested parties remained concerned. He

LOCATION: Lancing AUTHORITY: Adur District Council REPORTER: J Reid PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ Y3805/W/21/3274190

ultimately agreed with the appellant that the scheme would not “significantly impact” the road network despite potentially causing some queueing, however.

Although not “particularly accessible” for those without a car, the development would “support the use of sustainable transport modes”, he added.

Mageean was also satisfied, along with Natural England, that mitigation measures could be employed to prevent harm to the area’s designated wildlife habitats.

The site was also within the “wider settings” of two scheduled monuments – one grade I and the one grade II* listed – and another grade II* listed building. But Mageean was satisfied that the benefits of the scheme “clearly outweighed” any limited

power stations for short periods when renewable output is too low to meet demand”.

However, Reid found little evidence that other lowcarbon solutions such as large-scale battery storage could not perform some or all of the same functions as the proposed facility without emitting greenhouse gases.

She also found harm arising from the use of employment land at the business park for non-employment use, and she dismissed the appeal.

SHUTTERSTOCK / ISTOCK / ALAMY

local policy, inspector J Reid noted that the council had declared a climate emergency and committed to 100 per cent clean energy by 2050.

The proposed facility, on the other hand, would “generate electricity by burning gas, and its generators would consume oil, so it would be reliant on fossil fuels”, she noted.

The appellant referred to the national policy statement for energy, which states that “even when the UK’s electricity supply is almost entirely decarbonised, we may still need fossil fuel

I M AG E S |

The appeal concerned plans for an “urban reserve flexible energy facility” comprising two 2.5MW power units with an exhaust stack, two substations, a gas kiosk, an oil storage tank and a tall acoustic fence.

The appellant explained that the facility would be able to “come online within minutes”, helping to meet local demand for electricity during peak demand or when energy from renewable sources falls short of demand.

But, in considering whether the scheme complied with

and “less than substantial” harm to these heritage assets, noting the council's housing land supply of only 3.57 years.

Concluding that the scheme accorded with the development plan, Mageean allowed the appeal.

LOCATION: Fareham AUTHORITY: Fareham Borough Council

INSPECTOR: A J Mageean PROCEDURE: Virtual inquiry DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ A1720/W/21/3272188

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No roof terrace for historic Camden pub Plans for an outdoor dining area on the ground-floor roof of a historic Victorian pub in Kentish Town have been denied by an inspector, who was not convinced that the works were necessary to prevent the pub’s closure. bit.ly/planner1221-camden

Tile factory redevelopment blocked despite green belt exception Plans to redevelop a derelict tile factory in Northumberland to make way for 109 homes have been blocked by an inspector, who found that although the scheme complied with green belt rules, its design and the site’s accessibility fell short. bit.ly/planner1221-tile

Split decision over Ironbridge Gorge ‘folly’ summerhouse An inspector has reached a compromise with an appellant over a ‘folly-style’ summerhouse erected in the garden of s their listed hillside home in the Ironbridge Gorge Gor World Heritage Site, ruling that part of the development could remain. bit.ly/planner1221-folly

Council defeated over green belt C hhay production dispute An inspector has approved plans A to build 31 homes on the site of a livery business in the Cheshire green belt, after ruling that the g sscheme was not inappropriate because hay production at the b ssite did not exclude it from being “previously developed land”. “ bit.ly/planner1221-hay b

Back­garden motoc motocross circuit ‘not incidental’ In upholding enforcement action against a motocross and mountain bike training circuit in the back garden of a home near Colchester, an inspector ruled that the development was not incidental to residential use of the house. bit.ly/planner1221-bike

Very special circumstances justify green belt crematorium Plans for a new crematorium in Tandridge, a district which is 94 per cent green belt, can go ahead after an inspector ruled that cremation facilities are an “essential community need” that was not being properly met. bit.ly/planner1221-crem

Privately managed SANG would not jeopardise council funding A developer’s plans for 16 hectares of green space to offset pressure on the Thames Basin Heath SPA can go ahead. An inspector rejected the council’s argument that it would not have a enough funding to manage other SANG sites. bit.ly/planner1221-sang yp g

Conversion to Hair salon allowed at rural fishery

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Plans for a poultry facility with a capacity for 141,000 birds have been en blocked after an inspector decided ed that a nearby scientific research ch centre was not an industrial use and nd therefore had a higher sensitivity to to odour. bit.ly/planner1221-poultry ry

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Plans to convert a former shop at a rural fishery near Aldershot into permanent premises for a mobile hairdressing business have been approved by an inspector, who ruled that a sequential test was not needed. bit.ly/planner1221salon

Poultry facility’s odour would ld disrupt research centre re

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LANDSCAPE

LLegal landscape OPINION

The system needs serious thought, not ministers losing their marbles The thing about planning is that it’s complicated and when one thing changes everything changes, says Nicola Gooch

Less than 18 months after living room, under the sofa the Planning for the Future and into the waiting mouth of white paper, and before your infant sister*. consultation responses have A more pertinent even been published, its example: amalgamating proposed reforms are on retail, restaurant, office, light ‘pause’. In this time, we have industrial, nursery, healthcare seen piecemeal amendments and gym uses into a singleto the NPPF; new use class was a huge act of government strategies for deregulation. As a result of reducing carbon and a raft of class E being created, moving announcements between these surrounding uses no longer COP26. Despite constitutes “BALANCING THE this activity development.

LAND USE RIGHTS – as well as AND INTERESTS OF The intention frequent calls SO MANY COMPETING was to improve to build back the vitality of ELEMENTS OF better, greener town centres by SOCIETY WAS and more NEVER GOING TO BE allowing vacant beautifully – STRAIGHTFORWARD” units to reopen we still have a more quickly. housing crisis The change and a planning also drove a system close to coach and falling over. horses through I do not have all the national planning policy answers to these problems.

– something which the I am, however, pretty sure government has yet to that they won’t be found in recognise, much less address. another slogan.

Paragraph 86 of the NPPF The English planning requires local authorities system is complex and to “define the extent of interconnected. Changing town centres and primary one part of it can have wideshopping areas and make ranging ramifications. Like clear the range of uses my daughter’s marble run, if permitted in such locations” you move one piece without and allocate sites within a plan for the whole structure town centres to meet their this not only risks sending likely needs, looking at least things off track but across the 10 years ahead.

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Paragraphs 86 and 87 require councils to apply a sequential test to all planning applications for ‘main town centre uses’ not in an existing centre or in accordance with an up-todate plan. Main town centre uses are defined in the NPPF as “Retail development… leisure, entertainment and more intensive sport and recreation uses… offices; and arts, culture and tourism development” – the list overlaps heavily with class E. We now have a system which requires local authorities to define the extent of town centres, allocate sites for acceptable uses and apply a sequential test to applications for new developments; while simultaneously allowing existing units to change use without involving the planning system at all. Thus, rendering all that time and effort rather pointless.

Another example would be the government’s approach to permitted development rights. Their use to convert non-residential buildings into residential ones has been massively expanded in recent years. Councils, however, cannot take planning policy into account when considering a permitted

development scheme – unless it relates specifically to a matter listed in the prior approval requirements for the relevant permitted development right.

This means that policy initiatives such as the National Model Design Code or biodiversity net gain simply do not apply to permitted development schemes. This tends to be overlooked by ministers promising “tree-lined streets” or “beautiful” buildings.

I am not against permitted development rights, nor indeed class E, but I’m vehemently opposed to this apparently piecemeal approach to policymaking. I have spent too much time of late retrieving metaphorical marbles from behind the sofa. Planning may be complex, but it’s important.

Balancing the land use rights and interests of so many competing elements of society was never going to be straightforward. Surely it is not too much to ask that the next set of reforms be fully thought through? *This may be a true story. I have never dived across a room so fast in my life.

Nicola Gooch is a partner in the planning team at Irwin Mitchell

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

NEWS Council decides to quash 4,000-home scheme in Kent following pollution concerns Canterbury City Council has conceded a legal case regarding a 4,000-home development rather than fight a judicial review. The plans, approved in 2016, also comprised two schools and community facilities. The scheme was proposed for Mountfield Park, south of Canterbury.

Construction was halted when two local residents began legal proceedings because of concerns about environmental pollution. Consent was eventually re-granted in February 2021.

But the High Court granted permission for a separate judicial review to be heard after resident Tom Lynch lodged a challenge in March. Mr Justice Waksman granted the judicial review for three reasons, including that the city council had erred in law because it failed to understand and comply with policies in its own local plan. The policies seek to protect the long-term vitality and viability of the city centre. It had also granted permission for additional development at Mountfield Park that is not in the local plan.

The council decided to quash the permission.

North-South Interconnector legal challenge is rejected The High Court has refused to quash planning permission for the NorthSouth Interconnector, although the judge did find a flaw in the ministerial decision-making process.

The cross-border electricity line, which will run from County Tyrone to County Meath, was approved in September 2020. It was approved after previous consent, obtained in the absence of a minister, was quashed.

Mr Justice Scoffield decided that Northern Ireland’s infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon had approved the scheme in breach of the requirement to refer the issue to Stormont for agreement.

However, Scoffield said that Mallon had kept her colleagues in the cabinet informed of her plans to secure the legislative change needed to make the decision on the scheme. Scoffield added that it wasn’t the type of case where the minister “sought to ‘go on a solo run’”.

The legal challenge was mounted by a group of landowners who were opposed to the scheme.

London landlords fined for not complying with enforcement notice A married couple were ordered to pay £253,449.07 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 after they failed to comply with a planning enforcement notice issued by Ealing Council.

Mr Kartar and Mrs Surinder Khosa were prosecuted for failing to comply with planning regulations at a property in Waxlow Crescent, Southall.

An enforcement notice was issued because the couple did not obtain the required permission to use the main property as a large house in multiple occupancy (HMO) and the outbuilding in the rear garden as a self-contained residential dwelling. Officers found the occupants living in cramped conditions.

The couple were given three months to comply with the notice.

Ealing’s enforcement officers secured a warrant to gain access for a compliance visit. They found that the use of the outbuilding had ceased but the main house was still an HMO. After the couple were prosecuted, the case was committed to Isleworth Crown Court for a confiscation order to be considered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. A confiscation order totalling £253,449.07 was ordered by the court, which needs to be paid by 3 December 2022. A default prison sentence applies if they fail to pay. The couple were also ordered to pay a fine of £6,000 each, plus court costs of £25,250.70.

LEGAL BRIEFS Appellant who built ‘Britain’s biggest man cave’ loses challenge The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal by the owner over a ruling that he was in contempt of court of an injunction issued in 2018. The building houses a cinema and bowling alley. (Local Government Lawyer) bit.ly/planner1221-mancave

Review of the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement The first Scottish Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement, which sets out the principles for land rights and responsibilities in Scotland, is out for review after its first five years. bit.ly/planner1221-rural

Landowner breaches injunction prohibiting woodland development Gareth Daniel Sullivan has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment after accepting he was in breach of an injunction preventing the felling of protected trees and the development of land at Fowlers Stone Wood, Vigo, reports Local Government Lawyer. bit.ly/planner1221-injunction

Casement Park: Minister questioned over judgment’s implications for decision Belfast Live has reported how a residents’ group opposed to this redevelopment in west Belfast has launched proceedings against the decision to grant planning, with a minister questioned over whether a court ruling makes her planning decision on Casement Park vulnerable to challenge. bit.ly/planner1221-casement

Claimant ordered to pay council £17k in costs over ‘hopeless’ case The High Court has awarded the London Borough of Barnet costs of £16,969.90 against a resident described by Mr Justice Julian Knowles as having pursued a “hopeless” planning case, reports Local Government Lawyer. bit.ly/planner1221-barnet

Wealden Council wins CIL case with ‘far-reaching implications’ A social housing provider is facing a CIL bill in excess of £3 million over a 169home consent in East Sussex after a judge agreed with Wealden’s District Council’s decision to reject an application for relief from CIL. (Local Government Lawyer) bit.ly/planner1221-wealden

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NEWS RTPI news pages are edited

by Dominic Brady at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

GOVERNANCE

RTPI to ballot members on changes to its governance structures The RTPI has announced that it will be balloting members on a series of important changes to its governance structures.

The proposals involve changes to the size of the RTPI’s Board of Trustees, a recalibration of the General Assembly and a series of changes to the Institute’s bye-laws and regulations.

The ballot will be running between 5 January to 2 February 2022. Both the Board of Trustees and the General Assembly strongly

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recommend that members vote in favour of the resolution.

These changes will bring the Institute into line with current best practice guidelines issued by the Charity Commission, increasing transparency, accountability and good governance.

The RTPI says that a smaller Board of Trustees will mean more efficient and agile decision=making and that the changes will also give both the Board and the General Assembly renewed focus on the

major issues that affect the profession.

The announcement of the ballot follows an independent review by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and a lengthy consultation process with members.

The ballot will be conducted by MiVoice. Members should look out for an email from MiVoice. n To find more information about the changes visit https://bit.ly/planner1221-changeballot

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no.

262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

Why is the ballot taking place?

What are the proposals in detail?

In 2019 the Board of Trustees commissioned the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) to conduct a Board effectiveness review.

The review was commissioned partly in response to the Charity Governance code and partly due to a growing awareness of the challenges of effective decisionmaking within a large Board.

The NCVO made 60 recommendations to improve and modernise the way in which the Institute is governed.

A Governance working group of Trustees was then established, led by Sue Bridge, Chair of the Board of Trustees. This group worked throughout 2020 and early 2021 to develop the best way to integrate the NCVO’s recommendations into the governance structures of the Institute.

The Chair of the Board also led a comprehensive membership consultation process, which involved engaging with all of the RTPI’s standing committees, Regional Management Boards, National Executive Committees, Young Planners networks and the General Assembly.

The feedback from these sessions and views expressed by individual members were then taken into account in the formulation of the final proposals.

Reduce the size of the Board and review the specific roles and seats to increase accountability, transparency and effective decision making The Charity Governance Code considers that a board of between 5 and 12 trustees is good practice. The RTPI’s Board is currently operating with 16 Trustees, but has more typically had 17. In consultation with the GA, the BOT has agreed that the number of Trustees be reduced to 13.

n Read the NCVO’s review in full at: bit.ly/planner1221-report

Update the requirements in the constitution for nominations to election to the Board with the aim of reducing barriers to entry for members These changes are intended to reflect the importance of the Board of Trustees in the governance of the Institute’s affairs and to ensure that Trustees have wide support within their electorate (ie, the GA representatives). Positions affected include the Vice-President, Chair, Hon Secretary, and Chartered, Young Planner and Independent Trustees.

Change the term for Trustees (except the presidential roles, Chair and co-opted) to three years, renewable once The RTPI believes that, as the Institute’s affairs become more complex, a 2-year term is insufficient for a trustee to become a truly effective member of the board. A three-year term renewable once is in line with current best practice. The proposed exception to this is that the Chair would be elected for a term of 3 years only. The Chair’s role is increasingly demanding and in the interests of good governance it is appropriate to limit the time any one individual can spend as chair of a board.

Refocus the General Assembly and its value to the Institute and the profession in order for it to perform its constitutional role as envisaged when it was established in 2003 The GA to revert to four meetings a year from 2022, at least one to be a virtual meeting. The GA should be provided with training, and other resources made to enable it to perform its function. GA should be empowered to become the ‘Think Tank’ of the RTPI with its policy and practice debates filtering into the work of the PPPRC/ EPP/Executive Committees and the Research Team.

Change the Institute’s bye-laws In order to achieve a shift to increased accountability in the way that the Institute is operated, a range of bye-laws will need to be changed.

A full list of these changes will be published on the RTPI website in due course.

I M AG E S | RT P I

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NEWS

2022 SUBSCRIPTIONS: HERE FOR YOU You will by now have received your RTPI subscription for 2022.

Subscriptions are due for renewal on 1 January annually.

We started 2021 with a record number of members and an excellent take-up of our Chartered Town Planning Apprenticeship, but we also heard that many local authority planners feel that they are unable to do their jobs fully because of a lack of resourcing.

That’s why I was delighted when The Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee backed our call for a proposed £500m injection over four years into the planning system in England. An appropriately funded planning system is now more important than ever.

Going forward into 2022 we want to demonstrate why planning should matter to everyone, so we will be launching a microsite to help to

demonstrate the value of planning to the public and to attract new people into the profession. It’s just one of the exciting projects we’ll be pursuing from our corporate strategy to help showcase the value of planning as a profession.

We recognise the importance of supporting you through these challenging times by keeping subscription fees as low as possible.

That’s why this year we have capped our subscription rate increase at 2 per cent.

For a Chartered member that works out at just £6 extra a year. I value your membership and am committed to keep providing a wealth of benefits to support your personal and professional development. n Read the report at: www.rtpi.org. uk/membership/subscriptions/2022subscription-rates/

The RTPI is delighted to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BAME Planners Network as part of its ongoing work to diversify the planning profession.

The MoU sets out how the RTPI will collaborate with BAME Planners Network over the next three years to build a planning profession that is as diverse as the communities it represents.

As part of the RTPI’s

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10-year CHANGE action plan, the two organisations have committed to develop and deliver joint activities, resources, CPD and events and to share knowledge and information about diversity and inclusion.

RTPI President Wei Yang FRTPI said: “The MoU is another important milestone for the RTPI in delivering CHANGE, its EDI action plan.

“It demonstrates our commitment to creating a more diverse and equitable

planning profession which is truly representative of our communities.

“I applaud the network’s excellent work so far and I hope through the MoU both parties can enhance their capacities to promote equality, diversity and inclusivity, and help to create a culture that delivers the best outcomes for the diverse society in which and for whom the profession works.”

Founding member of BAME Planners Network

Helen Fadipe MRTPI said: “The signing of this MoU is a good step towards formalising our relationship with the RTPI to ensure the planning profession reflects the communities it serves.

“Through this MoU, we will continue to support the RTPI in attracting and retaining planners with BAME background in the profession and working collaboratively to deliver on the network’s Action Plan and the RTPI’s CHANGE.”

I M AG E S | RT P I

RTPI to continue diversity work with BAME Planners Network

I M AG E S | RT P I

09/11/2021 11:27

RTPI’s national training programme for 2022 The RTPI has announced its CPD Masterclass programme of more than 30 online training courses

The programme includes a range of topics and will run online throughout the year to give learners the opportunity to participate nationally.

Climate action and equity, diversity and inclusivity are themes running through all 2022 courses.

There will be new topics featured this coming year in Applied Urban Design Analysis and Planning for Elected Members. There will also be the return of core Masterclasses training, including Environmental Impact Assessments, Viability and Development Finance and interactive courses on writing, and impactful planning communication skills.

CPD MONITORING FOR 2022 A commitment to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a key feature of being a Member of the RTPI, with a requirement of 50 hours over two years as outlined in the Code of Conduct.

During the pandemic, the RTPI continued to offer CPD opportunities, and we know that lots of Members carried out even more CPD than usual as you adapted to new ways of working.

The annual audit will commence from January 2022 and a percentage of Members will be randomly monitored, so please do continue to log your evidence in ‘My CPD’ under the ‘My Profile’ section of the website.

Kathryn Thomson, RTPI Head of Professional Development & Education, said: “Designed and delivered by industry subject experts, RTPI CPD Masterclasses reflect the training needs of planners.

Transformed into online delivery in 2021, the courses’ topics are designed to help planners do their job more effectively with practical case studies, framework examples and checklists.

Each course consists of two afternoon webinars separated by one month to embed learning. Knowledge resources for pre- and post-session activities complement the live webinar training.

“As an attendee, you will gain inspiration from the trainer and your peers, learn about key sector developments, and reflect on the impact you can make in your practice – essential development for a successful planning professional.

All Masterclasses are aligned to the RTPI’s Core CPD Framework so come submission time, members have guaranteed expert CPD training to report to the Institute.”

The course levels range from introductory to intermediate and are intended for planning professionals – members and non-members alike – who need a top-up or a refresh of skills and knowledge. The in-depth Masterclass programmes, organised

by RTPI Training, are a key part of a wider CPD offer that includes the RTPI Online Events series and e-learning on RTPI Learn. Booking for all 2022 courses opened midNovember. n Go to bit.ly/planner1221training for more information.

To receive the monthly Training newsletter, visit bit.ly/planner1221register

IN MEMORIAM Long-standing RTPI member Graham Wall passed away peacefully on 10th October 2021 following a short illness.

Mr Wall became a member of the RTPI in 1970 and worked for 30 years with Dartmoor National Park.

Former RTPI President, John Frederick Norman Collins OBE FRTPI ARIBA, passed away aged 97 on 23 October 2021. Mr Collins served as President between 1980-82.

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Reach out to our audience of membership professionals There’s never been a more important time to reassure the planning community that their skills are in need.

The Plannerr job board board offers offfers you an opportunity it to t attract tt t the th attention tt ti of a guaranteed, dedicated audience of membership professionals, and reassure them that you are still looking to recruit.

Whether you have vacancies now, or will be looking to recruit at a later time, remind our readers what sets your organisation apart, and let them know your plans.

You might also consider advertising in The Planner magazine, and ensure you are seen by the profession’s top-calibre candidates and kept at the forefront of their minds. Show them that you are here, your brand is strong, and your organisation needs them.

For more information and rates, contact us now on: T: 020 7880 6232 E: jobs@theplanner.co.uk p48-49_PLN.DEC21.indd 48

08/11/2021 12:49

Here is a selection of the most recent opportunities from a few of those organisations working with The Planner to recruit the best quality candidates in the marketplace.

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theplanner.co.uk/jobs 08/11/2021 12:49

Activities

Click where you see this icon

CONTENT THAT'S WORTH CHECKING OUT

A digest of planning-related material. Each month our work takes us around the internet in search of additional detail for our stories, meaning we invariably come across links to items we think you’ll find educational, entertaining, useful or simply amusing. Here’s our latest batch.

What’s caught our eye

I M AG E | R IC H A R D G L E E D

‘The heyday of the planning profession is coming’ Dr Wei Yang’s tenure as RTPI president is coming to an end, but here is her optimistic article for Scottish Planner, The Journal of RTPI Scotland.

Wei has always expressed how full of hope she is for the profession, and here she gives her view that planning is always about people and the future, there to create “a balanced system for people, nature and society to coexist in harmony”. bit.ly/planner1221-weiblog

RTPI Report: Urban Planning After COVID This latest RTPI study examines how planning can contribute to calls for a sustainable, resilient and inclusive recovery from the current health and economic crisis. It reviews the effects of Covid-19 across the themes of housing, urban production and consumption and travel in global cities and reflects on their implications for fostering a just, inclusive and sustainable recovery. bit.ly/planner1221-postcovid

Nathaniel Lichfield Lecture 2021: Levelling Up: The Role of Land Markets, Planning and Finance in Driving ing the Agenda Philip McCann, professor of urban and regional economics in the University of Sheffield Management School, presents this year’s Lichfield lecture. He will examine aspects of the levelling-up agenda and the role land markets, land use planning and the links with financial markets play in shaping economic development in general, and also in the context of addressing interregional inequalities and climate change mitigation. bit.ly/planner1221-land

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Right to Know (web resource) This site allows anyone to understand the systemic and environmental trends that could be affecting their health through a straightforward postcode search.

(Everything from summer heat, air quality to night light, noise and deprivation).

It is one of those handy data amalgamation sources that deserves a wider audience. bit.ly/planner1221-righttoknow

Scottish Planner Live If you didn’t attend and your appetite has been whetted by our report on page 7, this link takes you to the RTPI’s playlist of presentations from October’s event. At a time when planners are looking to their role post-Covid-19 and to shape Scotland’s 4th National Planning Framework, the theme this year was ‘Our place in a climate crisis’. bit.ly/planner1221-playlist

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LANDSCAPE

Stevenage Ltd – Aspects of the Planning and Politics of Stevenage New Town 1945-78 – Routledge Revivals (hardback) This book, originally published in 1980, covers events from the inception of Stevenage in 1946 up to 1978.

Emphasis is placed on the structure and action of three groups of people: the ‘urban managers’ – the Stevenage Development Corporation; Stevenage industrialists; and local organisations engaged in protest.

The case made here is that the experience of Stevenage illustrates a case of urban policy (particularly in housing and employment) being determined by the interests of industry alone. (Published: 24/02/2022) ISBN: 9781032228914

The Surprising Problems With The City Grid The rectangular grid is an ancient city plan used by civilisations for thousands of years, underpinning many cities to this day. Although the design is hailed for its efficiency, this Cheddar video suggests that there is also a surprisingly dark side to the city grid. You’ll hear an explanation of the origins and deployment of the grid system, and also how grid systems can be bad for planned design today. bit.ly/planner1221-grid

Urban Planning in India Something out of the ordinary: a podcast series that considers how planners in India have, over the past seven decades, tried various different approaches to plan cities, moving from centralised master planning to the current emphasis on local town planning schemes.

These 15 episodes consider the Indian planning perspective on everything from land planning, transport integration and land markets in urban planning.

Metabolism in Transportation and Urbanism: Town Planning Aiming for Coexistence of People and Cars Starting with the oil shocks of the late 1970s-early 1980s and how they brought an end to the era of high growth represented by the carfirst mentality, Japanese author Ando Ikuo considers how urban transport seems destined for a transformation, with a proposal for a living environment in the city mainly for pedestrians.

ASIN: B09DKKTGL8

What we’re planning 2022 is set to be a remarkable year for the profession, with environmental and housing issues ever more prominent in the national conversation. We profile the RTPI’s incoming president Tim Crawshaw in January’s edition, while forthcoming features will cover The Agent of Change principle, nutrient neutrality and the core digital principles of planning. As always, let us know what you want to see if you’re not seeing it discussed.

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If undelivered please return to: The Royal Town Planning Institute 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

Book today rtpi.org.uk/training training@rtpi.org.uk + 44 (0)20 7929 8400 @RTPIPlanners #RTPICPD

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