The pendulum that is the planning system’s legislative and policy framework has swung consistently back and forth since I started working over 25 years ago. Seemingly no incoming administration can resist the temptation of a landmark bill to finally get Britain building or, since 2012, a new NPPF to either also get Britain building or stop Britain building depending upon how bolshy the backbenchers are being. A minor upside of a perpetual reform agenda is a constant supply of content for columnists, bloggers and podcasters, but a major downside is that it absorbs ministerial and civil service time and energy that might otherwise be expended addressing the planning pantomime’s erstwhile Cinderella, which is development management. In this long-neglected corner of the system, despite the additional layer of complexity that each legislative and policy change has added over time, planning applications are essentially being prepared, submitted and determined in the same that I have always k...
Episode 186 of the podcast is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms. One of the most common topics of conversation that I was party to at the UKREiiF jamboree in Leeds this year was the need for statutory chief planners. There are perhaps three factors behind that interest in building or strengthening leadership capacity within LPAs. First, the impending programme of devolution and local government reform will create larger teams covering larger geographies that will need to co-operate with newly emerging strategic authorities. Second, more authorities being in no overall control need guiding through the decision-making implications of that. And thirdly, the emerging need to manage the possibly contentious gateway test element of the soon statutory scheme of delegation. A role of statutory status, I also heard suggested in the context of wider LPA capacity and skills issues, might be something to encourage a junior officer to stay in local government and work...