Labour launches Planning Commission to ensure communities have a voice in local planning decisions

Labour’s Planning Commission will seek to reverse the impact of government deregulation of planning that has resulted in residents being ignored when decisions are made about new developments in their community.

The Commission will cover all aspects of the planning process, including the necessary infrastructure to underpin new development and crucial aspects of any proposed development, including genuinely affordable housing for social rent, in order to create a planning system that works in the public interest.  

Labour believes that it is time for a root and branch review of the planning system, and the Commission will examine how to put local people back at the centre of planning and empower people to shape their local communities.

The Planning Commission will inform Labour’s radical reforms to the planning system that will be necessary to fix our broken housing market and create a housing system fit to deliver Labour’s housing policy, including one million genuinely affordable homes.

The Commission will address the marginalisation of voices of communities and residents in the planning process, reinforced by the imbalance in expertise and resource between communities and private sector bodies and a lack of transparency in the planning system.

The Labour Party will launch its new Planning Commission at Party Conference in Liverpool on 23 September 2018.

Made up of experienced planners and experts from the housing industry, Labour’s Planning commission will hold meetings across the country, meeting with residents planners, local authorities, developers. The Commission will also be asking for written submissions.

The Commission will report in September 2018.

Roberta Blackman-Woods, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Planning and Local Government said:

“Our Planning System has seen a number of changes in recent years, but these all add up to more deregulation, and a system that is no longer working for our communities.

“The voice of local residents must be at the heart of decisions about the future of their communities.

“Despite warm words from the Government about planning, communities are increasing side-lined in the decision making process, and feel they have no say in the type of development they get.

“The Commission will help Labour design a planning system fit for not only the 21st century but the 22nd century, and will examine the role local people have in shaping the future of their area and planning in advance for new infrastructure; for jobs; for access to schools; new transport; greater access to green spaces, and the need to enhance the built and natural environment.” 

Andrew Gwynne MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said:

“I am delighted to be launching the Planning Commission at Party Conference, and I thank all those who are taking part in this essential review of the planning system.

“Local Government Planning Departments are increasingly stretched, dealing will more applications, and struggling with a deregulated, poorly functioning planning system. This Commission will help Labour design a planning system that works for communities, and helps deliver the kind of development that communities want and need for the future.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors

The Commissions Terms of Reference are:

1. A set of proposals for a new system of local plan making underpinned by values and a purpose that sees planning as representing the public interest, and to examine how local authorities can lead and be champions of planning in their area in partnership with others.

2. Establishing how planning policies and strategies developed at the national, regional, local and neighbourhood level can link together to provide better outcomes for our communities.

3. Examining how local communities can better provide the building blocks of our planning system, and take ownership of planning policies that will affect them; establishing the framework to facilitate this.

4. Identifying changes that need to be made to our system of planning gain, to streamline it and made it more efficient and transparent for developers and communities.

5. Considering measures that will improve land supply, including changes that might need to be made to compulsory purchase orders.

6. Considering changes that might need to be made to building regulations:

a. to make buildings safer;

b. to make buildings more energy efficient;

c. to make buildings carbon neutral where possible.

7. Exploring how the planning system could better support infrastructure development and how government at different levels can facilitate this.

8. Considering how best to develop a new generation of garden cities, villages, urban extensions and new towns.

9. How to improve the quality, design and sustainability of new buildings to help address climate change.

10. How to drive forward innovative and modern methods of construction and improve access to digital networks and better computer assisted design.

11. Make proposals for the training and support of planners to enable them to be a catalyst for visionary local planning to develop skills and ensure a pipeline of future planners exist.

12. Considering how to better support the housing and construction sector with particular regard to the role that small builders, land trusts and cooperatives can play in the delivery of new housing and infrastructure to ensure greater diversity in the construction sector.

Members of the Commission will include representatives from:

Town and Country Planning Association, Royal Town Planning Institute, British Property Federation, Federation of Master Builders, National Housing Federation, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Local Government Association.

Labour’s Housing Policy is set out here: https://labour.org.uk/issues/housing-for-the-many/

Labour will be holding a launch event for it’s planning commission at party conference, on Sunday 23^rd September, 17.30-18.30, at the Albert Suite, Pullman Hotel.