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Presentation
to the Singapore Institute of Planners Tuesday, 28 June 2005 : NUSS
Guild House, Suntec City
Planning Reform in the United Kingdom - One Year On
Roger Bristow, Visiting Professor, Graduate Institute
of Urban Planning, National Taipei University, Taiwan and Senior Research
Fellow, School of Environment & Development, University of Manchester,
United Kingdom |
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Why Reform?
Usually major planning reforms come about for one of three major
reasons, or just sometimes various combinations of all three. The
reasons are: internal dissatisfaction with or obsolescence of a
system; a political requirement for change; or sometimes external
factors not connected with planning at all, as with the British
introduction of unitary planning at the local level as a result
of the abolition of the former metropolitan county level of local
government in the early 1980s. For the major changes in the United
Kingdom that are now nearing completion after almost 7 years of
close government attention, all three reasons can be discerned this
time.
Firstly, the whole commitment to the devolution of power from the
centre, and the reform of local governance to make it more participatory,
transparent and accountable in terms of economy, efficiency and
effectiveness, informed the whole debate about how to reform the
existing British planning system. Thus planning has now moved from
one system to four under the devolution powers creating the Scottish
Parliament and the Northern Ireland and Welsh Assemblies; as well
as the attempt to bring in regional governance in England (now suspended
as a result of the public referendum failure in the Northern Region
in 2004). It has led to many procedural changes affecting partnership
and participation in planning matters, and a revolution in the political
arrangements for dealing with planning and other local government
matters at the district level, particularly in England and Wales.
Secondly, there was indeed dissatisfaction in the late 1990s with
the operation of the then current planning system in Britain. As
had happened before (in the period leading up to the 1968 reforms),
the system was criticized for being too slow and cumbersome, and
for retarding and hindering enterprise and business. Professionals
were also concerned about the details of development control, like
the system becoming overwhelmed with small householder planning
applications, the need for better and clearer provisions for compulsory
purchase and planning obligation payments from developers; and better
strategic planning with more local control and less direction from
the centre.
Thirdly, the reforms of the government generally suggested a new
social awareness of equality, diversity, and a need for general
inclusiveness, with a more transparent and accountable system of
government at all levels. This is reflective not only in the local
government reforms, but on other national matters such as the introduction
of the Freedom of Information Act, reform of the procedures for
dealing with major planning inquiries, the initiation of many new
partnership arrangements between government, business and the community
at all levels, and especially through the 'Community Strategy' programme
at local district level (DETR, 2000; Entec, 2003 & ODPM, 2004g).
Reform of the United Kingdom planning system itself began in earnest
in 1998, when a new 'Modernising Planning' agenda was spelt out,
one year after the election of the new Labour government in the
United Kingdom - the first of three consecutive terms as it has
turned out to be (DETR,1998 &1999, DTLR 2001, ODPM 2002a & 2004a&b).
The whole picture is both detailed and complicated, and too much
to put concisely into a paper for an occasion such as this, but
nevertheless the reform can perhaps best be divided into three parts
:
• conceptual
•· strategic
•·
local
and for the strategic and local, it is also worth sub-dividing these
into policy and plan-making, and implementation and development
control, as sub-sections. All these areas of the United Kingdom
planning system have had some reform in the last year or two, to
a greater or lesser degree. The rest of this paper will look briefly
at each topic in turn.
Conceptual
Just as in the 1968 reform, one can say that there is now a new
'big idea' about the role of planning that informs all the procedural
changes that have taken place, particularly in the plan-making side
of the four United Kingdom systems. It can be summed up quite simply
in the concept of a return to the comprehensive ideal for plan-making,
not to any master-plan perspective, but in wishing to provide workable
and implementable policies to modify and develop the functioning
of places in space. In terminology terms the in-words have become
'spatial planning', as a concept to be implemented at all spatial
levels from the nation state and city region right down to individual
action plans in local areas.
Spatial planning is concerned with functional areas, rather then
administrative areas as used often in the past. Administration (local
government) becomes merely an implementation method for the policies
delineated in an area strategy, at whatever scale one is concerned
with. Thus in Europe, the concept can be seen being utilized in
the European Spatial Development Perspective of 1999 (European Commission,
1999) and in recent Dutch national planning strategies, as well
as in the new national strategies now prepared in the United Kingdom
(see below). It is concerned with operationalising spatial visions
for the future, in such a way that integrates as far as practicable
all private and public policies affecting the quality of life for
the long term, in a particular functional area or geographic space.
It thus extends in conceptual terms well beyond the traditional
planning concerns with controlling just land use and the development
of land.
This broadening of the government's agenda for planning is not only
reflected in the current procedural reforms of the British planning
system, but has also meant new thinking from the Royal Town Planning
Institute in the United Kingdom (RTPI, 2001), and a radical overhaul
of the traditional town planning education programmes in the British
university planning schools to prepare new entrants for professional
participation in the new processes (RTPI, 2003).
Strategic Planning
Policy & Plan-making
In many ways it is in this area of the United Kingdom planning system
of 1968 that the greatest and most obvious changes have occurred.
Put simply, strategic planning in the United Kingdom has moved upwards
in scale, from the county level to either national level (in Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales) or to regional or metropolitan level
(in the English regions and London).
Northern Ireland
has long been dealt with separately in governance terms, and will
not be considered further in this paper. The mainland interest lies
in the strategic reforms in Scotland and Wales, and the total reform
of the English system under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase
Act 2004. Because of the different devolution arrangements for Scottish
and Welsh government, the planning systems devised for the two territories
are also different.
In the Scottish case, which for many years has had a seperate planning
law system (due the existence for many years of the different Scottish
legal system), the 1968 structure plan and local plan system - known
so well to readers of British planning text books - lives on. There
may however be some changes shortly, as a new Scottish Planning
Act is expected to be introduced soon, following current review
(Robinson, 2003; Scottish Executive, 2001, 2002, 2004a&b). So far,
the principle observable change has been in the preparation of the
National Planning Framework for Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2004b),
and the beginning of work to prepare metropolitan plans for the
four big Scottish cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
There is little doubt that the impetus for the Framework has been
political. The desire has been to give expression to the new national
status of Scotland, which now has its own parliament for internal
affairs, and to portray that in terms of a national vision for the
development of the territory to 2025. As yet, however, the Framework
has no statutory status or legal power in Scotland - it remains
purely an informing and guiding document, for consideration by the
statutory planning authorities at county and district level within
Scotland.
The Welsh case is different, and in theoretical terms deserving
closer examination. Moves towards preparing a national spatial plan
for Wales preceded the procedural reforms of the Planning & Compulsory
Purchase Act of 2004 (which applies to both England and Wales, but
in plan-making terms provides different solutions). The Welsh in
fact looked across the Irish Sea for inspiration, and took the Irish
National plan of 2001 as their inspiration, although European and
Dutch influences are also apparent. The finished Wales Spatial Plan
(Welsh Assembly, 2004) is of interest not just because it is the
first territory-wide statutory plan in the United Kingdom, but also
because of its approach. Unlike previous structure planning, it
has not been formulated on the basis of administrative boundaries,
but instead has embraced fully the spatial planning ideal of functional
regions. The plan therefore proposes policies based around the city
regions in Wales, and the functional rural regions as in the Welsh
National Parks or the Welsh Borders (adjacent to England), and its
strategic map shows no clear boundaries (see attached powerpoint).
As with other new plans in the 2004 system it also sets up a clear
monitoring system with policy targets and indicators to measure
outcomes, and with an initial review of the strategy set for four
years time.
The English review at the strategic level is much more fundamental.
The basic decision embodied in the Planning & Compulsory Purchase
Act 2004 has been to rationalize strategic planning in England,
by abolishing the county structure plans and replacing them with
statutory Regional Spatial Strategies for the eight administrative
English regions and a special plan for London (The London Plan,
Greater London Authority, 2004) These are already well advanced,
with a target date set for completion of the first round early in
2006. Already two are in place - the London Plan of 2004, and the
Regional Spatial Strategy for the East Midlands (RSS8) (GOEM, 2005)
Whilst the English regional spatial strategies follow on directly
from previous regional work done to prepare the earlier Regional
Planning Guidance (RPG) published previously for each English region
- indeed the two preparation processes have overlapped in some regions
like the North West - they are quite different in form, content
and intent. More detail can be found in the accompanying powerpoint
presentation, but here it can be mentioned that first and foremost
they are now statutory (rather than just guidance as with the previous
RPG), which means that they form part of 'the development plan'
that informs all development control decisions on planning applications
in the English system of controlling the use and development of
land. In this way they replace the former upper-tier structure plans
prepared by counties under the earlier 1968 system.
The East Midlands example (GOEM, 2005) also shows the way in another
sense, in that not only does it give policies for the whole region,
determined once again following the standard formulation of functional
regions, but it also includes a more detailed sub-regional strategy
for the London growth area around Milton Keynes, the famous English
new town (which is set to grow to nearly half a million people by
the end of the plan period). For the other London growth areas,
such as Thames Gateway, the M11 Corridor to Cambridge, and Ashford
in Kent we are likely to see similar sub-regional spatial planning
documents published within their regional spatial strategies; while,
in the northern regions, it is already apparent that the regional
planners are already preparing sub-regional strategies for major
city regions like Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield as
a formal part of the own regional spatial strategies.
Implementation
It is therefore already clear that in England and Wales only, a
radical reform of how to do, and at what scale to do, strategic
spatial planning is well under way. One of the government's policy
aims for the new spatial planning process has also been to set out
who is to do what, and by when, in terms of plan or strategy implementation.
As the process is so new, and indeed most strategies are not yet
in place, it is early to test how far the new implementation measures
are working. But certainly new monitoring procedures are in place,
and new planning indicators are being set up to monitor policy target
achievement. But perhaps not surprisingly, already tensions are
beginning to appear, in such matters as implementing and achieving
the regionally-set local house-building targets in individual districts.
However government has already put into place its new performance
measures, and in the regions themselves new annual monitoring reports
have begun to appear. What remains to be seen, as the monitoring
continues to be done is how the strategy implementation - especially
by district authorities through their local planning and development
control work - is going to work out.
Local Planning
Policy & Plan-making
To begin with, just a word about the Scottish and Welsh situations
at the local level. Both have been affected by local government
reforms carried out as a part of the devolution packages for government
introduced at the end of the 1990s. In Scotland, devolution also
meant abolition for the former Scottish regional authorities, although,
for the moment, the former 1968 system of statutory planning lives
on as a two-tier structure plan/local plan system, pending possible
change resulting from the proposed Scottish Town & Country Planning
Act (Robinson, 2003). Similarly, development control powers in Scotland
remain unchanged, pending completion of the current process of review
and the likely introduction of a new Scottish Act.
For Wales, local government was also reformed at the end of the
1990s, when the previous county and district two-tier system was
replaced in Wales by 25 unitary county boroughs. The introduction
of unitary local government meant that at that time the local planning
system was changed from a two-tier system to single unitary development
plans (following the model first introduced in the English metropolitan
districts in the 1980s). The effect of the Planning & Compulsory
Purchase Act 2004, which also applies to Wales, has been to modify
the existing UDPs in terms of planning concepts (they are also to
follow the spatial planning model as elsewhere in the United Kingdom),
but in terms of coverage and style they are merely the UDPs reborn,
with a name change to Local Development Plan (Welsh Assembly, 2002a&b,
2003b). Thus Wales now has, in 2005, a very orderly and effective
planning system based on the Wales Spatial Plan providing the national
statutory planning policies as the territory-wide level, and 25
Local Development Plans providing the detailed guidance for planning
decisions being made by each of the 25 unitary local government
planning authorities. It should also be noted that the development
control changes being discussed in England (set out below) are also
likely to be applied in the Welsh system as well. How this new system
will work for the long term future of Wales is being watched with
great interest.
It is once again, however, the English system that has faced the
greatest upheaval as a result of the 2004 reforms. In terms of plan-making,
the 1968 system is now the past for English local planning authorities
- structure plans, unitary development plans and local plans are
now no more. Action Plans, previously conceived of in the 1968 reforms,
are reborn, and local plans have been replaced by Local Development
Frameworks.
The new process of local planning is quite complex, and more detail
can be found on the attached powerpoint slides. However a number
of basic points are worth setting out here.
- Firstly,
the former role of the English counties as strategic planning
authorities has been removed, and given to the eight English Regional
Assemblies
- The English
counties now only have a residual planning role for minerals and
waste planning, and for County Transport Strategies, though they
continue to do strategic planning work as inputs to the new Regional
Spatial Strategies being prepared by the eight Regional Assemblies.
- Each English
district is now the local planning authority, and is required
to produce a Local Development Framework, prepared according to
a timetable published publicly each year as the Local Development
Scheme. ·
- Instead of
producing a single statutory local plan, as formerly required,
each district planning authority must now produce a series of
statutory Local Development Documents which make up their Local
Development Framework. These documents include such items as Core
Strategy, Key Diagram, and Action Plans.
- All Local
Development Documents have to go through a formal public examination
process as part of the public participatory preparation process
prescribed by the 'English' government.
- A new participatory
process is introduced for the preparation of Supplementary Planning
Documents, which replace the former Supplementary Planning Guidance
- All local
planning authorities in England have to prepare their Local Development
Framework as an implementation arm of their local authority's
annual Community Strategy
- All local
planning authorities have to include within their Local Development
Framework, a Statement of Community Involvement, which is itself
also subject to a process of public participation and independent
examination
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As
can be seen, an ambitious programme of change has been set, and all
English district planning authorities are in a process of feverish
change right now. In the accompanying powerpoint example, Newcastle
City Council has been used to illustrate the programme of work published
by just one English local planning authority as their 2004 Local Development
Scheme (Newcastle, 2005), which gives an impression of how just one
district sees its planning work programme for the next few years,
in terms of complying with the new planning reform legislation of
2004.
Implementation & Development Control
One of the Modernising Planning agenda items, set back at the beginning
of the whole planning reform process in 1998, was to look again at
development control within the British systems of planning. So far,
only England and Wales have begun processes of significant change
(ODPM 2004f & 2005). These really affect three areas of policy implementation
at the local level: compulsory purchase, planning obligations and
the definitions of development within the Use Classes Order. Other
more detailed changes can be found in the ODPM references just cited
in 2004f and 2005. All are ratified by the changes written into the
Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, which applies in both territories.
While complex legally, in fact it takes a whole section of the 2004
Act, the reform of local government's compulsory purchase powers is
simple (ODPM, 2002d & 2003g). It is to consolidate all the compulsory
purchase powers available into one law, rather than many; and to widen
the power. Thus, as from 2005, English and Welsh local governments
can now freely compulsorily purchase land, as long as they can show
it is for a public purpose for the good of the local community in
terms of economic, social or environmental enhancement, and is genuinely
needed. No doubt, as this new power is used, it will become refined
by case law, as it seems reasonable to expect legal challenges to
its use to be made, as has happened in the past for other significant
new legal restrictions on private ownership and development rights.
The matter of planning obligations is also significant in two aspects.
While new powers have been given in the 2004 Act (following the 2002
proposals - ODPM 2002e), for the moment, pending a decision at the
end of 2005 on the introduction of a new Planning Gain Supplement
(yes - a revisitation in Britain of the old development charge debate)
the current reform, as set out in the ODPM's 2004 draft circular (ODPM
2004h), remains largely procedural. The changes, in the government's
words, are "to promote speed, certainty, transparency and accountability
(ODPM, 2004h, 10), and are to bring the existing planning obligation
system into line with the new system of spatial statutory planning
introduced by the 2004 Act.
The matter of the definition of 'use' used for development control
purposes, and which developments might be exempt have also come under
review (ODPM, 2002c). Modifications so far discussed revolve around
some simplification of the use classes used, particularly for business
uses, possible removal of some householder applications from the planning
system, and the power for local planning authorities to institute
a Local Development Order to allow for limited local variation in
the way in which development is controlled in local areas through
the definition of changes requiring permission (ODPM, 2004f & 2005).
Conclusions
There is absolutely no doubt that the wave of changes wrought
by the change of political power brought by the 1997 general election
is the biggest shake-up of United Kingdom planning since the reforms
of 1968. Indeed it can be said to be the third wave of planning reform,
alongside the momentous past changes of 1947, which introduced planning
permissions, and 1968, which introduced written policy-making into
UK planning.
However the situation in the United Kingdom at the present time is
more like 'watch this space'; for although examples of 'new' practice
are indeed beginning to appear, much of the reform is still 'a change
in progress' rather than any completion, and even those plans that
have appeared still await their implementation stages. Thus the only
real conclusion for interested outside observers, like yourselves
in Singapore or Taiwan, is to, indeed, keep yourselves informed, to
watch, observe, evaluate and review.
In the United Kingdom too, 'the jury is out', and academics like myself,
whilst not only being a part of the process itself - since it is us
who have to critique the new system, as well as train its new participants
in the dubious arts of the 'new' spatial planning (in terms of our
new undergraduate and postgraduate students) - but also we should
also take a lively interest in monitoring and evaluating the workings
of the new system, as it is played out at national, regional, sub-regional
and local levels in the four territories and planning regimes of today
- a momentous task!
Bibliography
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- DETR (1998)
Policy Statement: Modernising Planning. Department of Environment,
Transport & the Regions, London
- DETR (1999)
Modernising Planning : A Progress Report, Department of
Environment, Transport & the Regions, London
- DETR (2000)
Preparing Community Strategies : Government Guidance to Local
Authorities, Department of Environment, Transport & the Regions,
London
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Planning Green Paper - Planning : Delivering a Fundamental
Change, Department of Transport, Local Government & the Regions,
London
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Ltd. (2003) The Relationships between Community Strategies
and Local Development Frameworks, Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister, London
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Commission (1999), European Spatial Development Perspective,
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Norwich
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for Greater London, Greater London Authority, London
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(2005) Local Development Framework - Local Development Scheme,
Newcastle City Council, Newcastle
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Sustainable Communities - Delivering through Planning,
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill : Implications for Development
Plans & Regional Planning Guidance, Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister, London
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Possible Changes to the Use Classes Order and Temporary Uses
Provisions, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
- ODPM (2002d)
Compulsory Purchase and Compensation: The Government's Proposals
for Change, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Planning Obligations : Delivering a Fundamental Change,
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Planning Policy Guidance 11, Regional Planning - Supplementary
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Consultation Paper on Draft Planning Policy Statement 11 (PPS
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London
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Creating Local Development Frameworks - Consultation Draft
on the Process of Preparing Local Development Frameworks,
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Draft Planning Policy Statement 12 : Local Development Frameworks,
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Consultation Draft : Local Development Frameworks - Guide to
Procedures and Code of Practice, Office of the Deputy Prime
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Sustainable Communities : Delivering through Planning - Second
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Compulsory Purchase Orders : Circular 02/03, The Stationary
Office, Norwich
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Consultation Paper on Planning Policy Statement 1: Creating
Sustainable Communities, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister,
London
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Planning Policy Statement 1 - Delivering Sustainable Development,
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Planning Policy Statement 11 - Regional Spatial Strategies,
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Planning Policy Statement 12: Local Development Frameworks,
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Creating Local Development Frameworks - A Companion Guide to
PPS 12, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Changes to the Development Control System, Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Community Involvement in Planning : The Government's Objectives,
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Draft Revised Circular on Planning Obligations - Consultation
Document, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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Changes to the Development Control System - Second Consultation
Paper, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
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R.R (2003) Options for Change - Research on the Content of
a Possible Planning Bill, Scottish Executive Social Research,
Edinburgh
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A New Vision for Planning : Delivering Sustainable Communities,
Settlements and Places -'Mediating Space - Creating Place' - A
Need for Action, Royal Town Planning Institute, London
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(2001) Wales Spatial Plan - Pathway to Sustainable Development
: Consultation, Welsh Assembly Government, Planning Division,
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Additional
details can be found on the following websites
http://www.odpm.gov.uk
http://www.goem.gov.uk
http://www.newcastle.gov.uk
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Planning-Building
http://www.wales.gov.uk/subiplanning/index.htm
http://www.rtpi.org.uk
http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm
http://www.vrom.nl/international/
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