City Science have submitted a transport-led response to the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG)’s recent Planning for the Future White Paper consultation. The White Paper proposes bold changes to overhaul the planning system in England by the end of 2024.
Overview of Planning for the Future White Paper Proposals
The current planning system is underpinned by the Town and County Planning Act (1990) which allows planning authorities (such as local authorities) to make Local Plans and Joint Core Strategies which identify geo-spatial development allocations alongside locally specific policies that planning applications must conform with. Alongside this, local authorities have a development management and control function in relation to planning applications.
The White Paper aims to streamline and modernise the planning process, improve design and sustainability outcomes, reform developer contributions, and ensure more land is available for new development growth through:
- Simplifying land designations across the country to Growth, Renewal and Protected Areas.
- Granting automatic planning permission in principle to Growth Areas.
- Removing the ability of local authorities to set their own development management policies and absorb these nationally within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
- Significantly shorten the Local Plan preparation time for local planning authorities to a statutory 30 month period.
- Consolidate current Section 106 Agreements and the Civil Infrastructure Fund into a new Infrastructure Levy to fund new infrastructure.
Our Response
As an organisation who works extensively with local planning authorities to prepare sustainable transport and wider infrastructure evidence bases to support the preparation of development plans, we are well placed to provide insight from a transportation perspective into the consultation process. Our response to the White Paper has been informed by a collation of our internal diverse views and experiences.
The planning process plays a pivotal role in being able to successfully reduce the carbon impact from vehicles in future developments; particularly in being able to positively influence a reduction in travel demand and distances by integrating land use and transport planning, along with embracing new localism. By not considering this inter-relationship as well as diminishing the voice of local people, we consider that the proposals will make the planning system worse rather than better.
Download our full transport-led response to the White Paper submitted to MHCLG (PDF)
