Planning for the Future

Following the Chancellor’s budget last week, the Government has announced its intention to modernise the planning system with an "ambitious" Planning White Paper.  Robert Jenrick’s policy statement on 12th March has a focus on delivering more housing, of better quality, as detailed in our other blogs.  What is particularly interesting is the Government’s willingness to rip up the 1947 Town & Country Planning Act on which the current planning system is based and usher in a new system for the 21st century.

Planning White Paper Spring 2020

The Planning White Paper to be published this Spring will offer “creative solutions” to “establish a planning system that works”.  Robert Jenrick’s acknowledgement that the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and the planning process that has emerged from it, “is now complex, out-of-date and fails to deliver enough homes where they are needed" hints at the likely radical nature of the White Paper.

The Town and Country Planning Act 1947

It was noted by the Raynsford Review that the 1947 Act was formed out of the same mold as the NHS.  Just as the NHS was to provide health for everyone, the 1947 Act was to provide housing and attractive environments for the masses.  While the Raynsford Review agonised over how to re-discover planning as intended by the 1947 Act, the Government appear to be taking the more radical approach of scrapping the previous system and starting again.

Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century

As discussed in an earlier blog, in January 2020 the Policy Exchange published a report entitled ‘Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century’.  One of its authors, Jack Airey, has since been appointed as a special advisor to Downing Street, suggesting that the forthcoming White Paper is likely to reflect at least some of the report’s proposals.  The Policy Exchange was scathing about the ‘command and control’ approach that underpins the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and it appears that the Government is listening to its recommendation to undertake a root and branch reform of the entire planning system.

Proposals in ‘Rethinking the Planning System’ that have been reflected, in whole or in part, in Robert Jenrick’s recent statement include:
    • making land “sufficiently available to deliver homes”;
    • emphasis on up-to-date local plans;
    • easier to understand - this might translate into a rules-based system;
    • use of local design guides and codes;
    • reflect international best practice;
    • expand the use of zoning, already in use through Local Development Orders.

However, the Government does not appear to be prepared to go as far as removing all top-down housing targets, to let the market find its own level as proposed by ‘Rethinking the Planning System’.  It is also rather ambiguous as to whether it will shift planning away from focusing on allocations of land.

Accelerating planning?

It is tricky to marry the promise of “communities playing a role in decisions that affect them” with the promise of accelerating planning.  The report ‘Rethinking the Planning System’ proposed to achieve this by diverting community involvement away from individual planning applications and into plan-making. 

There are indications that this is the direction that the Government is heading in.  The 12th March statement wants, ‘a planning system that supports beautiful design’ and which ensures that 'new homes conform to local residents' ideas of beauty'.  This is to be achieved by local design guides and codes that will 'embed standards' in planning policy.

Implications for planning appeals

We anticipate that the forthcoming White Paper will seek to shift the public’s engagement in planning away from objecting to individual planning applications and towards setting local rules on good design.  Rules might be intended to make the planning system more predictable, but it remains to be seen whether a more rules-based approach will reduce or increase the decision-maker’s discretion, given the inherent ambiguities around "good design". 

If a scheme is refused by an officer on design grounds, appeallants may well want a second opinion from a Planning Inspector.  Knowing your inspector's views on design issues as expressed in their previous appeal decisions has never been more crucial.  Simply type into the Search box on Appealfinder's home page to bring up the list of Inspectors.