Will this really mean ‘Planning for the Future’?

Have we heard all this before or is this a real change for the future? Indeed, is the announcement today from Robert Jenrick MP, Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government, merely a feel-good tease to keep us on the edge of seats while we sit out the Coronavirus? Or will the Spring Planning White  Paper and the Housing reforms, expected later in the year, be the utopia the development and planning sectors are waiting for? Sadly, I fear we have been here before – but granted it’s not been with the underlying chill of Covid 19 or the context of growing homelessness.

We read about the laudable aspirations of home ownership and levelling up the country’s wealth so everyone has access to opportunities. No one is going to argue with the latter and we can debate whether owning your own castle is still the optimum goal, given emerging working patterns while we wait for the Renters Reform proposals to emerge.

Building Safety is another key area that has to be grasped if we are to learn anything from Grenfell, but it’s the anticipated planning reforms that are likely to get people agitated with excitement or frustration. Too long seen as the excuse for all the woes of the development sector, reforms are indeed needed. But as we head for the mid March, let’s hope Government remembers to ‘Behold the Ides of Planning’ and seriously think through all unintended consequences of radical reform.

Plan-tech and data analytics have a massive part to play in updating our systems and most actors on the planning stage already embrace the value they can bring to both policy and regulatory processes. Government is right is claiming that little has really changed since the 1947 Act in terms of attitude and systems – but a digital approach would bring in speed, accuracy and allow for some immediate catch-up in response to capacity and investment shortages in planning department across the country.

The billions announced by the Chancellor this week for housebuilding and infrastructure will need to be underpinned by a system that is fit for use and digital solutions are part of the underpinning. Making better use of existing planning principles and statute so we don’t have to complete rewrite current legislation, are another.

Hence, I welcome a more pragmatic use of Local Development Orders – a more palatable approach to zoning that nods its head to democratic decision making but moves away from the street corner cat fights between Elected Members that all too frequently pander to a local electorate in the wrong way. LDO’s can be the subject of intelligent input and then result in smoother and quicker decision making. This is what investors and developers want to see – a degree of certainty.

The development that will emerge will of course still need to reflect quality, have more than the current cursory respect for the public realm but instead embrace the exploding community pressure for liveable places. Luckily investment markets are already recognising this through ESG and the need for all built environment players to reflect social value in its widest forms on the ground and through their communities. Box ticking is so obvious and should be called out. People want to see results, not just hear PR babble.

With this context, additional funds to support brownfield land regeneration, and much needed local public transport systems, devolved strategic powers, the use of permitted development rights in the right places with respect to sensible environmental and a local land use parameters, can only be positive. The enthusiasm for mass community build in the right places, supported by the right infrastructure has been around for some time. For this to continue will rely on resources, i.e. real people making any brave new planning world work with digital support.

A carrot and stick approach to the public and private sectors, whether those charged with setting blue prints for an area and administrating the system or those literally getting stuff out of the ground is one way of getting results. But this will need a more grown up understanding of how to embed community aspirations and ‘people power’ at the right time, and having a clear understanding of what a carbon zero approach really means.

Most importantly, I think the most critical element that an effective review can bring to the table – is bravery in recognising that the time to talk about it has passed and we simply need to get on and do. So many recent reviews of various planning regimes have made intelligent recommendations – but few administrations have had the courage to say ‘….that makes sense…..we have considered the consequences…so let’s do it!’. I truly hope the post Brexit era, with a degree of stability at Westminster, and an impressive cheque book, means we really see it happening in 2020.