Sounds like a plan: getting the best from government’s planning system proposals

The CBI has responded to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Planning White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’, which was published in August and closed at the end of October. The CBI’s response sets out how, handled well, a transformed planning system can deliver greener homes, better connected communities and new opportunities for growth and prosperity driven by the right development.

The CBI’s response brought together a varied mix of members from across the business landscape who contributed hugely valuable thoughts and insight. During our engagement with MHCLG directly, we were pleased to hear that the Ministry would be continuing to engage with stakeholders, residents and businesses to develop the proposals in the Planning White Paper further as it approaches legislation.

The CBI’s consultation response drew on insights from its members across a range of industries and focuses on the following key points:

New approaches to plan-making must marry efficiency and speed with clarity

• Business welcomes the Planning White Paper’s ambition to simplify and speed up the planning system. CBI members agree that the present planning system is too complex and protracted to deliver the kind of effective decision making that can realise the full potential of new and re-development. We therefore welcome proposals to speed up Local Plan-making and utilise national development management policies, streamline and simplify planning processes, and create more homes to address the affordability challenges facing the country.
• Businesses also recognise that the drive towards a digital and technology-led planning system will be an enabler of reduced complexity and faster decision making. Too often, decisions are hindered by laborious processes and under-resourced planning teams: the goal of bringing the planning system into the 21^st century, with a digital-first approach to plan-making, the application process and community engagement, is a worthy one.
• The success of a new planning system will depend on having the right skills and resources in place on day one. Feedback from CBI members consistently suggests that capacity and capability of over-stretched local authorities is the biggest barrier to increasing the speed of planning decisions. For a new planning system to be successful, it is essential that skills and resourcing issues are addressed and suitably funded, including training provision across local authorities and the Planning Inspectorate, ahead of time.

The country’s environmental targets must be front and centre of new planning policy

• Improving the sustainability of homes and buildings must be the primary objective of building beautiful places. The CBI’s members are advocates of progressive targets on the UK’s 2050 net-zero carbon target, recognising that the built environment is a leading contributor to the country’s carbon emissions. While new development should reflect and celebrate the characteristics of areas in which they are built, new homes and non-domestic buildings must make a positive difference to the country’s carbon goals, with energy efficiency and carbon reduction at the front and centre of new planning policy.

Communities must feel the benefit of affordable homes and infrastructure delivered in tandem

• Affordable housing delivery remains fundamental to our economy. The new planning system must safeguard delivery of more affordable homes in more areas of England as a key component of the government’s overall ambition to build more homes generally. A steady increase in affordable housing provision will be central to meeting the target of 300,000 homes a year and modernising supply chain skills across the wider housebuilding sector.
• The new planning system must also drive more successful infrastructure delivery. Planning encompasses developments far beyond the houses people live in. Almost everything that gets developed, from a rural petrol station to the enormous ‘supersheds’ that support online retail, relies on effective planning. A planning system that unlocks high numbers of sustainable and safe homes for the future must also enable non-domestic development and the transport and social infrastructure which supports communities, creates jobs, and drives business growth to be built.

Having laid out a clear direction of travel in this Planning White Paper, the CBI has recommended that government identifies the building blocks of a new system that will require legislation, and engage on each segment closely with planning practitioners, commercial and residential tenants and landowners, housing associations and registered providers, developers and constructors, to establish the detailed legislation which will realise the objectives set out in Planning for the Future.

The CBI’s full response can be downloaded below. For more information on the CBI’s work on housing and planning, as well as our engagement with MHCLG, please contact Tim Miller.