Half a billion pounds must be injected into the England’s
planning system over the next four years to ensure the
government’s objectives on housing, beauty, climate, the economy
and health can be achieved, according to the Royal Town Planning
Institute (RTPI).
In its formal response to the Comprehensive Spending Review
(CSR), the Institute sets out the vital role planning plays in
facilitating economic growth, providing affordable housing,
tackling climate change, ensuring access to green space and
improving wellbeing.
It says without significant investment, the government’s
ambitions for the planning system, set out in a white paper
published earlier this month, cannot be realised.
Victoria Hills, chief executive of the RTPI, said: “The drive for
new infrastructure, housing and progress towards net zero will
create major additional need for planning services in the coming
years. The planning system has been severely under-resourced for
decades which has had implications not just for efficiency of
process, but for the capacity of professional planners to apply
their knowledge and lead on strategic place-making.
“The government has set out its ambitions to ‘radically overhaul’
the planning system, but to deliver on these ambitions they will
need professional planners. The development sector is crying out
for support. Without adequate investment, this simply will not be
possible.”
The response, which comes ahead of the RTPI’s Invest and Prosper
report, due to be published in October, says a new Planning
Delivery Fund of £500m is required to enable the planning system
to deliver outcomes efficiently, effectively and equitably.
It would replace the existing fund, which was announced by the
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in
February 2017 in a white paper, Fixing our Broken Housing Market.
It allocated £25m between 2017-18 and 2019-20 to ‘support
ambitious authorities in areas of high housing need to plan for
new homes and infrastructure’.
But only £15.8m was awarded to successful bidder in the first
wave of funding, with the remaining £10m not being spent.
This compares to a £150m a year (figure adjusted for inflation)
Planning Delivery Grant to support local planning authorities
between 2004 and 2008.
The RTPI’s proposals comprise of nine sub-funds to enable
investment into specific government priorities. It also calls for
the funding to be ring-fenced and to be distributed fairly across
all local authorities according to the number of people who live
there, the scale of the development pressure and current levels
of resourcing:
Plan Making fund - £170 million
The government has has said all local authorities must have an up
to date local plan by 2023 but has not made any additional
funding available. The Planning Delivery Fund would fund 50% of
the costs of doing this.
Design quality fund - £81 million
The RTPI has welcomed the Government’s renewed commitment to high
quality design, exemplified in its support for the Building
Better Building Beautiful Commission. This funding would enable
the delivery of the government’s ambitions for Design Codes in
every local authority.
Monitoring and enforcement fund - £67 million
To allow local authorities to do proper assessment of what is
actually being delivered through the planning system and how well
the local plan is being delivered and issue enforcement
proceedings.
Digital transformation fund - £46 million
To help support the digital transformation of planning – saving
money in the medium and long term and freeing up planners’ time
to plan. The existing Innovation Fnd has provided limited support
(£1m between 6 LAs and one charity)
Wider placemaking fund - £100 million
To bring a range of place-focused professionals to local
authorities, such as architects, urban designers and ecologists,
and to incentivise those outside of local planning authorities,
such as public health colleagues, to engage with the planning
process to enable the delivery of healthy communities.
Joint working fund - £15 million
To enable strategic reviews of green belt, waste management and
housing targets.
Community engagement fund - £50 million
The government has repeatedly suggested it would like
participation to happen upstream - with earlier engagement for
communities at plan making stage. The Planning Delivery fund
should provide grant for authorities to engage in rich community
participation at the earliest possible stage, for example through
deliberative panels.
Climate Action - £67 million
To deliver the equivalent of one FTE planner to work exclusively
on climate proofing policy and development management in each
local authority. The Committee on Climate Change’s Net Zero UK
report demonstrated there had been little or no progress in
reducing carbon emissions of buildings or surface transport.
Planning is part of the solution.
Capacity building fund - £17m
District Councils report that planning roles are the most
difficult to fill out of all roles. This fund would comprise of
£4m to support talent development from diverse socio-economic
backgrounds and 13m to enable the country’s 11,000 public sector
planners to attend five one-day courses a year over a period of
four years.
