Government calls for "neighbourhood vanguards" to trial planning reforms

The government is looking for a dozen local areas to become “neighbourhood vanguards” and trial new planning responsibilities outlined at the weekend by Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said the experience of the pilot areas would be taken into account before the legislation came into force.

The minister promised in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that local areas would take over a number of planning responsibilities from councils. The government has dubbed the changes as the “building blocks” of the Big Society.

According to the DCLG, the key elements of the reforms – which will be contained in the Localism Bill this Thursday – are:

• Parish councils and new “neighbourhood forums of local people” (in places without a parish), rather than council officials, will have the lead role in shaping their community through neighbourhood plans. Where people vote in favour of legally compliant plans in local referendums, local authorities will have a duty to adopt them. A simple majority in favour will mean that the plan has public support
• Councils will have a duty to provide support “and to ensure compliance with other legal requirements”. According to the DCLG, there will be a “light touch” examination of the plan by an independent assessor. This is to ensure compliance with legal requirements and national policy, and alignment with neighbouring plans and strategic elements of the council’s plan
• The neighbourhood plans will be flexible so “communities will be able to determine the issues or areas to cover and what level of detail they want to go into”
• Communities will – through new Neighbourhood Development Orders – be able to define specific developments or types of development which will have automatic planning permission. There will therefore be no need for any application to the local authority. In more complex cases, the orders will be able to grant outline permission “so that the right to develop would be established and only the details would need to be approved”
• Neighbourhoods will also be allowed to establish general policies that will steer decisions on traditional planning applications
• The plans will have to work “inside some limits” and “not be a means for saying no to important growth”. There will be safeguards to ensure they do not override wider ranging plans contained in national planning policy and the strategic elements of local authority plans. The National Planning Policy Framework will have a “vital” role
• Communities will be able to propose the boundaries of a neighbourhood, although neighbourhoods will generally be based on existing parishes and towns. Councils will mediate and consult where there are conflicts or no established boundaries. “This will provide a stable basis for neighbourhood planning, with local authorities approving appropriate boundaries”
• A range of incentives will be introduced, including the New Homes Bonus and a share of funds from a revised Community Infrastructure Levy.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "For far too long local people have had too little say over a planning system that has imposed bureaucratic decisions by distant officials in Whitehall and the town hall. We need to change things so there is more people-planning and less politician-planning, so there is more direct democracy and less bureaucracy in the system."

Greg Clark suggested the reforms would “revolutionise” the planning process by putting power in the hands of those who know most about their neighbourhood.

“This will be a huge opportunity for communities to exercise genuine influence over what their home town should look like in the future,” he added. “It will create the freedom and the incentives for those places that want to grow, to do so, and to reap the benefits. It's a reason to say yes."