Three new planning-related Bills in Government programme, including Community Empowerment: 'a mixed bag', says RTPI

The next Parliamentary session will include no fewer than three separate Bills involving major changes or initiatives involving planning-related legislation. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Housing Minister Caroline Flint have welcomed measures set out in the Draft legislative programme that will support the Governments ambition of creating thriving communities.

The Government's draft legislative programme for the Parliamentary session 2008/09, recently published, includes proposals to make Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) planning authorities, reform the existing heritage protection system and establish a new marine planning regime.

Ministers have proposed a Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic Regeneration Bill designed to 'reate greater opportunities for community and individual empowerment and reform local and regional governance arrangements to promote economic regeneration'.

Among other measures, this Bill will give local people a bigger voice in shaping local services and neighbourhoods and implement the recommendations from the review of sub-national economic development and regeneration. This will involve the integration of regional economic and spatial strategies and make RDAs statutory planning bodies.

Also on the cards is the Heritage Protection Bill which will mean major reforms to the heritage protection system in England and Wales. Well semaphored, this will involve the replacement of the separate listing, scheduling and registering arrangements with a single system for national registration of terrestrial heritage assets.

It will also mean the streamlining of the associated consent processes with a new heritage asset consent which will replace listed building consent and scheduled monument consent, and merging conservation area consent with planning permission.

The third major piece of legislation affecting the planning system is the Marine and Coastal Access Bill. This is designed to improve and simplify arrangements for managing marine development and to provide greater recreational access to the English coast. Housing Minister Caroline Flint has also set out a package of new support to help first time buyers into affordable home ownership.

The proposed new legislation has had a mixed reaction from planning professionals. The Royal Town Planning Institute has welcomed the moves on marine planning and heritage protection but voiced concern over the Government's proposals to put planning powers in the hands of RDAs.

RTPI: A mixed bag

The RTPI warned: 'In their current state RDAs are not democratically accountable and they do not have the staff to deliver good planning.'

The Draft Legislative Programme is a mixed bag, according to the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), which welcomes the Government’s commitment to pursue the Marine and Coastal Access Bill and the Heritage Protection Bill. However, it has strong concerns about the Government’s failure to outline plans to pursue the affordable housing agenda and is wary of future plans to give regional planning powers to Regional Development Agencies (RDAs).   

RTPI Director of Policy, Rynd Smith, said: 'The Draft Legislative Programme is a bit of a mixed bag. The Government’s commitment to implement the Marine Bill is welcome, as is the Heritage Protection Bill. However, we would have liked to have seen some urgent action on the delivery of affordable homes, particularly as the economic context in which they will now have to be delivered has changed dramatically since the current housing policy was formed in 2007.

'The extension of shared-equity schemes, announced separately by Housing Minister, Caroline Flint, may help more people onto the property ladder but what is desperately needed is a significant increase in the number of affordable homes. With the economic slowdown likely to render section 106 agreements less effective in delivering them we were hoping the Government might urgently examine fresh measures to bring affordable homes online. While measures might be announced in the Housing Reform Green Paper, set to be published at the end of this year, time is passing and demand for affordable hosing will rise.  

'We are also concerned by the Government’s desire to put planning powers in the hands of Regional Development Agencies. In their current state RDAs are not democratically accountable and they do not have the staff to deliver good planning. This situation needs to be addressed before the proposed Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic Regeneration Bill is taken forward.'