Don’t. Stop. Planning.

🎸 🎼“Some planners in a smokey room
The smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a while they can shelve the plan
It goes on and on, and on, and on […]”

The good folks at the Ministry for Housing. Truth be told, the civil servants I’ve met there are top-notch, hugely impressive professionals. Sure, on occasion the policies their political masters foist on us have been gently needled in these pages. But on one thing the Ministry has been absolutely clear. Don’t. Stop. Planning.

A lifetime ago, back on 1st October 2020, our planorak-in-chief - Joanna Averley - said that one of her “key messages” to local planning authorities was to #keeponplanning:

“We have been receiving anecdotal feedback that some local authorities may be considering pausing or slowing down the preparation of their local plan, in part due to the uncertainty of when the proposals outlined in “Planning for the Future” come into force. We would strongly encourage local authorities to continue in the preparation and adoption of local plans. There will be a period of policy development after the receipt of the responses to the White Paper. This will in turn be followed by the preparation and progress of any legislation required to implement the planning reforms. This will take some time and it’s therefore important that local areas have a plan in place.”

In a statement to Parliament on 19th January, Minister for Housing Chris Pincher delivered the same message:

“The White Paper sets out proposals to deliver a significantly simpler, faster and more predictable system. These proposals will need further development. Authorities should not use this period as a reason to delay plan-making activities. Authorities who have an up-to-date plan in place will be in the best possible position to adapt to the new plan-making system.”

Everybody get that? Don’t jump this gun. It hasn’t really been fired yet. The big ideas in the White Paper still need a lot of work. That work has started. But it definitely hasn’t finished. There are 44,000 odd responses to work through. And a lot of hard thinking still to do. The proposals will evolve. There could even be a need for further consultation(s). This is going to take some considerable time. So here it is: do not stop planning. That’s the message.

And what do we get? Come on. You know already.

Take a trip along the M42 to Bromsgrove, and tools are very much down. Last year, the Bromsgrove District Council said it will not publish any consultation material in relation to its new plan review “until more certainty exists on what the future plan making system will be.” A new timetable for plan production will be published “as soon as it is possible to do so”.

It’s a similar story up in Warrington, and also for the 3 South Worcestershire authorities (Wychavon District Council, Malvern Hills District Council and Worcester City Council) and now… just this week… for Milton Keynes too. MK officers have said that:

“Given the significance of the proposed changes [in the White Paper], the Council required time to consider what the implications could be for the next Local Plan and what progressed could be made whilst awaiting the final set of proposals Government would enact. This has further delayed progress on the Local Plan.”

So the target date for submission for their next plan gets shoved back from 2022 to 2024. Now, we should add for fairness that Milton Keynes adopted their last plan in 2019, so relatively speaking (St Albans - last adopted a plan 1994, York - last adopted one in 1954) MK are OK!

But look. We all know plan-making can be incredibly complicated. It’s expensive - producing a new local plan top-to-bottom costs about £1 million per authority over 4 years. Hugely resource intensive. Politically fraught. There’s no doubt about it: plan-making is hard work. And the professionals who get plans over the line are often worthy of some very serious kudos.

And then here comes Central Government, proposing a revolution in how these plans are to be prepared and what they’ll cover.

So, you might think, isn’t it understandable that Councils would want to take a pause and let the dust settle? See which way the wind is blowing? What the final proposals will contain? Before you end up spending millions of pounds on work which didn’t need doing?

Well no. For my money, now isn’t the time to delay plan-making. Now’s the time to speed up. These questions are well above the pay-grade of a little planning law and policy blog like this one. But for what it’s worth, I’m a passenger on the #keeponplanning train. Why?

Because needs exist. Always have. Always will. Needs for new infrastructure, bold new commercial areas, high streets and community spaces, homes (homes, and more homes). Planners and new plans have a massive role to play in meeting this perilous national moment. And those needs aren’t going anywhere. They don’t fall away just because we decide not to assess them or plan to meet them.

Local planning authorities who decide to hit the snooze button on plan-making until we have certainty on the next iteration of the show that never ends - the English planning system - could be waiting months. Or years. In the meantime their needs accrue.

And here’s the kicker: it’s national policy that those accruing needs should be met. One way or the other. Not later. But now.

And that’s the problem. If the needs aren’t going to be met through an up-to-date local plan, then they have to be met in a messier, more contentious and much more expensive way. “Speculative” applications (of course, every application in a LPA without an up-to-date plan is speculative). Refusals (“this site isn’t planned for” - of course it isn’t, you don’t have a plan). Then come the non-stop appeals. And at those appeals, local objectors wondering why on earth this “tilted balance” thing the barristers keep banging on about seems to have pulled the rug out from local decision-makers.

That’s how the power to plan can slip away from you, friends. Use it or lose it.

And this post is a plea to use it. Because it’s going to be a long time until the White Paper turns itself into a fully formed planning system. Who knows what that scheme will comprise. But in the meantime… we need a plan. Heck. We need a lot of plans.

In the meantime, stay safe out there #planoraks. And, of course… keep on planning.