A weekend read: the future of strategic planning

Can you believe it? This week’s planning must-read is (gulp) definitely not this blog. Heavens. What could it be? Well, it’s this thing here.

Let me set the scene (briefly, and then I’ll get out of the way so you can actually get on and read it):

I’ve talked in other posts about the Localism Act 2011, which was curtains for the regional tier of planning. What did it offer in replacement to deal with strategic issues which cross authority boundaries? Well, the “duty to cooperate”. Did that work? No.

When I asked Steve Quartermain what he’d do if he was Secretary of State for the Day, the answer was “scrap some Permitted Development rights and bring back a strategic level of planning”.

“Planning for the Future” - as I mentioned here - proposes to ditch the duty to cooperate (🍾🍻🏆) but - and here’s the rub - suggests nothing to replace it. Instead of a suggestion, we get Question 7(b):

“How could strategic, cross-boundary issues be best planned for in the absence of a formal Duty to Cooperate?”

Well? Any ideas? No pressure. The future of the English planning system’s at stake. So nothing too serious.

Enter Catriona Riddell - veteran of these pages, and one of the people we should all be listening to about strategic planning.

Catriona was commissioned by the County Councils Network to step in with a suggestion to fill the void left by the abolition of both regional strategies and the duty to cooperate. And she has this week produced that paper. Again, it’s a must read (full disclosure: I was part of a steering group which advised on the paper, but the ideas and the credit are Catriona’s).

The proposals in it, to these tired eyes anyway, are pragmatic and powerful. And, dear reader, they’re worthy of your serious attention. And that of the Ministry.

Enough from me. Here’s that link again. Happy reading and enjoy your weekends, #planoraks.