Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee – Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland
Dear Ariane
Thank you for your letter of 1 July. Congratulations on your appointment as Convenor of theLocal Government, Housing and Planning Committee. We very much look forward to workingwithyouandyourcolleagues.
You asked for our thoughts on priorities within the Committee’s remit, including the financialimplications for local government, planning and housing of the continuing pandemic and forexamples of innovative practice.Thank you for this opportunity.Our recent research paper Plan the World We Need discusses the potential of planning in supporting the post-Covid-19recovery. We believe that Covid-19 has brought into sharp focus the need to plan, prepare andprovidearoutemapforadifferentScotland that:
tackles the climate emergency and achieves Scotland’s net zero carbon reductiontargets
reduceshealthinequalitiesacrossScotland
supportsawellbeingeconomy
ensures aquality and affordable home for everyone who needs one
In doing this RTPI Scotland suggests that there is a need to agree a new normal and how weachieve this. This needs to embed resilience into how our cities, towns, villages andneighbourhoods function and develop over time. To make this change there is a need toundertakethefollowing shifts:
From short term thinking to long-,medium -and short- term thinking
From having many overlapping and disjointed strategies to complementarity and integration
From an opportunistic, reactive approach to development to a planned, proactive approach
From economic priorities to holistic priorities covering environmental, social and economic issues
From a competitive investment approach to one of managed investment
Froma deal-making approach to one based on providing a place vision first
From short-term, project focussed investment to a planned long term holistic vision
We have identified five key opportunities or challenges to make this happen and would be very happy to explore these with you and the Committee.These are set out below.
1. Resources
A key challenge in supporting the planning system to boost the post-Covid recovery is adiminishing level of resources, both budget and staff. Our most recent analysis Resourcing the Planning Service: Key Trends and Findings 2021 shows that planning services have been severely impacted due to budget cuts:
Nearly a third of planning department staff have been cut since 2009
Planning authorities ’budgets have diminished inreal terms by 42% since 2009
In 2020 local authorities only spent 0.38% of their total netrevenue budgets on planning
Planning application fees only cover 66% of their processing costs
There are 91 new and unfunded duties in the Planning (Scotland) Act, which could cost between £12.1m and over 10 years
This steep decline in resourcing has left the profession in a precarious position. We are of the view that there is a need to invest in planning services through exploring the provision of emergency grants to support post-COVID green and economic recovery. Notably, the need to adequately resource to the planning services has been recognised by a range of stake holder including business organisations such as CBI Scotland, Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Scottish Renewables
2. Workforce
Planning departments have demographic and succession challenges with a limited pipeline offuture talent. Data gathered from planning authorities’ Planning Performance Frameworks indicatethat only around 9% of staff in planning authorities are under 30 whilst over 35% of are over 50 years old.
Research commissioned by Skills Development Scotland for Partners in Planning outlined that over the next 10 to 15 years the planning sector will have demand for anadditional 680 - 730 entrants into the sector and highlighted that the majority of planners needing replaced will be senior and more experienced planners, potentially creating aknowledgegap within the profession asthis expertise and experience is lost.
RTPI Scotland would be happy to discuss how there is a need to make sure that we have enough planners to process planning applications and publishing development plans to support post-COVID recovery, and, how to invest in initiatives to promote planning as a career; widen access to the profession through establishing apprenticeships; and invest in skills development and culture change programmes.
3. NationalPlanningFramework 4 (NPF4)
We are firmly of the view that NPF4 has a vital role to play in the post-Covid recovery. As part of this RTPI Scotland would like to ensure that we have a forward looking and ambitious NPF4 with committed funding to help tackle the climate emergency and achieve net zero carbon targets, reduce health inequalities, support a wellbeing economy and ensure a quality and affordable homefor everyone who needs one.
As you will know it is anticipated that the draft NPF4 will be laid before Parliament in October/November. If used and resourced properly it can help to transform how we design and use ourplaces. In providing a clear vision how we can achieve through promoting real and positive change.In doing this it needs to be:
See our10 Big Ideas for the 4th National Planning Framework
4. Communities and Place
Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of having well-designed, attractive, healthy and sustainable communities where people have local access to the services, shops and facilities they need on a daily basis. Twenty-minute neighbourhoods can be the focus for the regeneration of our town and city centres where new housing is introduced to support services and shops that are found in them already. The Place Principle supports collaborative place- based action and the Place Standard is a commonly-used tool to help people think about the quality of their place and where action might be required. If the Place Principle is to be effective we believe that there is a need to ‘give it teeth’ and operationalise its work so it influences policy, practice and investment on the ground.
Local Place Plans were introduced by the 2019 Planning Act. They are an exciting new type ofplan providing opportunities for communities to develop proposals and ideas for thedevelopment of where they live. They can help community planning and land-use planningachieve better outcomes for communities. Local Place Plans are to be community led. They will be a key means of ensuring that communities are able to set out their ideas on what their places should look like in the future. This means that resources to support communities to access expertise and to engage with people in their area are vital to their success. However, there is currently no designated funding in place to support them to do this.
The 2019 Planning Act provides for the establishment of a National Planning Improvement Coordinator to monitor performance and support continuous improvement among those engaged with the planning service. The Coordinator can play an important role in ‘shifting the gaze’ to measure the success of planning in terms of the quality of places and needs of communities as well as quickly a planning application is processed. RTPI has published research and a toolkit called Measuring What Matters that have outlined the benefits of this. We wouldbe pleased to discuss this with the Committee.
5. Infrastructure
If we are increase the number, affordability and quality of homes whilst meeting net zero carbon targets, the next Government needs to prioritise infrastructure so that it can facilitate new energy efficient houses which are designed and located to achieve carbon neutrality. They must also be designed to help people have local access to the services, shops and facilities they need on a daily basis, so called 20 minute neighbourhoods. Planning can integrate this activity with interventions to regenerate deprived areas, creating new green spaces, improving access to jobs, services and amenities, attracting businesses, and supporting a resurgence of social and cultural activity.
In terms of good practice that has developed in response to Covid-19 a number of case studies have been highlighted in the RTPI publication Pragmatic and prepared for the recovery: The planning profession’s rapid response to Covid-19 and on the Scottish Government’s Transforming Planning website. These include examples such as:
Covid-19 has also heightened the move to a more digited planning service and this is now being supported through the Scottish Government’s Digital Planning Transformation Programme which is looking to design and deliver new systems and services, start to improve planning data,create new ways of engaging and collaborating with communities and stakeholders and advance digital skills in planning, and more. This work is underpinned by the fundingcommitment of £35m across the next 5 years and RTPI Scotland are working closely withScottish Government in taking this forward. Again, we would be happy to discuss this with the committee.
You can view the International lessons from Melbourne's 20-minute Neighbourhoods here.