New plan targets 'culture change' in planning: towards vision and delivery, put forward by the National Planning Forum

‘Planning should be more visionary, plans need to meet the objectives of many organisations not just local authorities, and planning needs to be at the heart of delivery,’ said Liz Peace, Chairman of the National Planning Forum (NPF), NPF Vice-Chair (Business) and Chief Executive of the British Property Federation in launching the Forum’s Culture Change Action Plan.

The National Planning Forum (NPF) is a cross-sectoral forum focussing on planning in England. It
comprises 75 members in five sectors: Central Government Agencies, Local Government, Business, the
built and land use Professions, and Non-Governmental Organisations. The NPFs mission is to 'inspire planning and
planners'.

‘We launched our ‘Manifesto for Change’ last July, but now we’ve now gone a significant step further – recognising that actions speak louder than words – by signing up to specific actions that we think will make a real difference to outcomes on the ground,' said Mark Southgate, NPF Vice-Chair (Government Agencies) and Director of Casework at the Planning Inspectorate, who is the convenor of the NPF working group on culture change.

'Our work needs to help nurture and create places of which future generations can be proud.’

Key commitments in the Action Plan include:
• ensuring that civil servants across Government are fully briefed on the role and purpose of planning (Communities and Local Government)
• establishing a network of Government Agency Chief Planners (Environment Agency)
• providing more effective feedback on the outcomes of appeals, Development Plan Document and Regional Spatial Strategy examinations - quality as well as process (Planning Inspectorate)
• linking with other Professional Institutions to improve training for planners and related professions (Royal Town Planning Institute)
• setting up a Task Force to consider how planning can help respond to the recession (Association of Consultant Architects)
• workshops with local authorities and Government Offices - in conjunction with Planning Advisory Service and Government Agencies - to encourage a place-making approach in Core Strategies (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment)
• encouraging and supporting use of Planning Performance Agreements for major planning applications (Homes and Communities Agency/Advisory Team on Large Applications (ATLAS)
• using web-sites, newsletters and events to spread best practice more effectively (Association of Town Centre Managers, British Institute of Agricultural Consultants, British Property Federation, Homes and Communities Agency/ATLAS, Natural England, Planning Advisory Service, Planning Inspectorate, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Royal Town Planning Institute).

  Southgate added: ‘All member organisations of the National Planning Forum pledge to continue to change in line with our Manifesto commitments and to undertake the individual organisation actions identified in this Action Plan. We will continue to check the impact of our Manifesto by monitoring the impact of the Action Plan and reporting on progress every six months.’

  The NPF launched its ‘Manifesto for Change’ in July last year and has now developed an Action Plan that commits
  its members to specific actions. Work on the plan was informed by the report 'Delivering Inspiring Places: the Role
  and Status of Planning' commissioned from Janice Morphet, with Tony Burton and Laura Hughes of IDOX plc. This
  report is on the NPF web-site: http://www.natplanforum.org.uk

  The Action Plan is available from: Kay Powell, Secretary: t: 029-20568643 or m: 07774 139 506. Background information and reports from the NPF can be accessed on the web-site: http://www.natplanforum.org.uk

  Related stories

  • Big Society will be 'defeated by inertia' and the 'silo mentality of Whitehall' say MPs: dedicated minister needed for progress
  • Localism Bill published: Community Right to Build will roll out across the UK
  • National Planning Framework, Community Right to Build, reformed CIL schemes to be in place by April 2011: TIF by July 2010
  • DCLG will 'alter significantly under the government’s localism agenda': more enabling and less intervening, says Sir Bob
  • Three London councils anounce plans for service sharing, including planning and regeneration
  • CLG budget cut by 51%; local councils by 28%; green investment bank launched; plans for 'dramatic shift' to the local confirmed
  • OFT produces draft guidance about land agreements and competition law
  • Ministers remove 'red tape' and 'alphabet soup' of standards that deter development, and offer community incentives
  • New planning law enables partially implemented outline planning permissions to apply for a replacement permissions
  • Social investment in neighbourhood and community governance structures is the way forward for making better places, says report
  • Regional Growth Fund hotly debated: funds for LEPs or for the private sector?
  • Tax Increment Financing powers could boost development investment and unlock growth, says Clegg
  • Realism required in city planning policy: 'bandwagon' sectors won't deliver, says report
  • Local authorities must 'wake up' and enagage in a 'step change' to prepare for climate change adaptation, says report
  • Community Right to Build: housing trusts could bypass the planning system to progress development
  • Big Society: local transport, energy, open source planning and controlling local assets to be devolved to communities
  • Homes & Communities Agency loses an extra £470 million: HCA 'will not be handling training or policy'
  • Regulation 'most likely' to drive progress in reaching zero carbon development targets
  • Regulation 'most likely' to drive progress in reaching zero carbon development targets
  • Half the homes built in England by March 2011 to be funded by HCA: funds slashed from next year onwards