Localism Bill risks greater bureaucracy, town planners warn

The Royal Town Planning Institute has expressed concern that the Localism Bill could make planning more difficult and bureaucratic, and called for a number of key amendments to the draft legislation.

In a briefing to MPs ahead of the Bill's second reading the RTPI said it welcomed the fact that it [the Bill] still retained the primacy of democratically elected district and unitary councils in the planning of their areas.

But the Institute warned: “We are concerned that the complexity of the Bill as drafted, the scarcity of resources available both to local authorities and to neighbourhoods; and the potential lack of democratic accountability for the preparation of neighbourhood plans will combine to make more difficult and bureaucratic to achieve the full potential of the neighbourhood and local planning system.

“We need help to ensure that no area is disadvantaged through lack of resources, knowledge or capacity from engaging in neighbourhood planning.”

The RTPI claimed that – in the Bill as drafted – the lack of a coherent strategic planning system combined with the complexity of the neighbourhood planning system might hinder the achievement of the government’s objectives such as economic recovery, re-balancing the economy between different areas and enhancing the environment.

It warned that the Bill depended heavily on future regulation and statements of policy, and relied on amendments to seven other statutes. “There is a real danger that the full impacts of this piece of legislation will not be known until the plethora of proposed regulations and statements is published,” the Institute added.

The RTPI’s main comments on the Bill were:

• The primacy of the local plan must be clearly explicit in the Act
• Neighbourhood Development Orders and the Community Right to Build could only be brought forward through a Neighbourhood Plan
• Those undertaking a neighbourhood plan could be properly constituted bodies as recognised by, for example, charitable status and could have a duty to consult within the neighbourhood area at a formative stage in the plan
• The criteria for establishing a neighbourhood forum could be extended to include businesses operating through a Business Improvement District
• Neighbourhood plans, and the referendums on them, could be used to express the community’s priorities for investment in their area. “These would still have to accord with the strategic priorities set out in the local plan but could, for example, express the community’s own priorities for the neighbourhood element of the CIL”
• Consideration should be given to measures that could be required to make planning effective at a larger than local level – “these might include a duty to consider joint plans, the strengthening of the role of national guidance and the roles of Local Enterprise Partnerships in spatial planning
• The duty to co-operate should be “in much clearer terms, without the use of limiting examples, in a form that allows for monitoring and, if necessary, challenge”. The RTPI said there was no indication yet on how reluctant local authorities, public bodies and communities will be encouraged to co-operate. Nor was there an indication of what sanctions would be taken and by whom, it added.
• Consideration as to whether a National Spatial Policy Framework should be a statutory document with the Bill spelling out its status for all decision-takers and placing a duty on government to consult on it and to regularly review it. “This proposal is based on the understanding that the presumption in favour of sustainable development and, crucially, the definition of sustainable development will be in the national framework.”

Ann Skippers, President of the RTPI said: “The RTPI welcomes the recognition by the coalition government that planning is a key part of its localism agenda though we feel there are areas where the Bill could be improved in order to help the government meet its key objectives and its international obligations. Our eight points set out innovative solutions on neighbourhood and local planning, and larger-than-local and national planning, and will be promoting amendments to the Bill along these lines.”