Planning needs to rediscover its roots

Planning has played a transformational role in improving the quality of life of all of our communities. In the past, planning has proved itself capable of dealing with overcrowding, poor quality housing and public realm, creating jobs, improving infrastructure and most importantly, securing greater social equity.

However, planning has become increasingly disconnected from peoples’ lives because it no longer deals with many of the issues people care about. We have seen a trend towards deregulation and an increasing emphasis on a market-led approach to decision making across our communities, which fails to take into account the multiple social, economic and environmental challenges facing our cities.

At the same time much of the political and media debate about the future of planning has become a largely sterile discussion of the merits of continued deregulation. The result; planning and planners are currently about as popular as dental surgery.

But we don’t need a comprehensive, democratic planning system just to keep town planners employed, we need it to ensure the long-term success of our countryside, towns and cities. The next government must set out a strong national vision for our urban areas, provide real opportunities for meaningful partnerships at the city-regional level and ensure a new focus on area-based approaches to regeneration at the local level.

Despite recent speeches by the chancellor calling for a ‘northern powerhouse’ and much rhetoric from successive governments about ‘re-balancing the economy’ many of the signals show a reverse trend.  It is in the national interest to see growth and renewal supported across the nation and to reduce spatial social and economic inequalities.

The planning system must rediscover its roots

in social town planning and promoting greater social equity

So, if the incoming government really is committed to re-balancing the economy, a national framework would be an important mechanism. Unlike the recently published National Infrastructure Plan 2014, which lists a range of major projects, a national spatial framework would help guide national infrastructure investment by setting out the indicative timing, broad location, and scale of key infrastructure projects. It would examine national inequalities, by laying the foundations for a better economic balance between London, the greater south east, and the rest of the country. It would address the challenges arising from population change in different parts of the country providing strategic guidance on housing needs and demands; and it would inform investment and spending across government, delivering much needed coherence and providing added value to the myriad of individual and corporate decisions and actions across government and the wider public and private sectors.

This is not about top-down imposition. Towns and cities need the certainty that their strategies, plans and aspirations are reflected in – and underpinned by – a wider framework for England based on the needs of sub-regional (or city-regional) and local economies.

Alongside a national plan, there is also a need for a clear urban policy on renewal and for place-based interventions which specifically deal with the multiple problems faced by many communities. It is clear that previous rounds of comprehensive interventions, such as Housing Market Renewal, could themselves have been better integrated with wider local services.  The incoming government should consider a review of the value of place-based regeneration with a view to publishing a clear articulation of future urban policy for England.

Some of the challenges facing our towns and cities, such as regeneration, transport and climate change, require councils to work with partners beyond their boundaries. The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) is a fantastic example of how a city council and its neighbours have come together to work cooperatively on a city-region basis. The Leeds city region is another example. However, these are the exception rather than the rule. The incoming government should work to encourage these in our other core cities.

At a delivery level, the planning system must rediscover its roots in social town planning and promoting greater social equity. As well as the need for poverty reduction hooks in the National Planning Policy Framework and a duty on poverty reduction for planning authorities, the wider objective of developing a new ‘social town planning’ model should be drawn together with the more detailed requirements of community governance, continuity of approach, broader planning powers and the wider integration of related health, education, policing and local authority powers and institutions.

As set out in the TCPA’s 2013 report Planning out Poverty this would essentially result in a new form of area-based planning which seeks to combine planning powers and in particular place-based delivery vehicles, with a much greater sense of social outcomes and community governance. This is not a new concept, but the emphasis and outcomes would be tailored to tackle specifically those areas facing complex social exclusion, where multiple and powerful intervention may be considered necessary.

There is an enormous opportunity to promote greater social inclusion and resilience to climate change in our towns and cities, and this in turn will underpin the economic success of our nation. The incoming government must seize this opportunity by refocusing planning legislation, policy and practice.