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PAS Bulletin

Let's be honest, 2016 has been a very "interesting" year. I know the PAS team are looking forward to a little bit of recovery time, and I hope you get some too. Because we're all going to need it.

Early in 2017 we're going to have a bunch of councils designated for poor performance, perhaps also some losing their powers to make local plans. And immediately afterwards the Housing white paper is going to land and it's rumoured to be a whopper, with significant impact on many bits of the planning system. We've given up trying to second-guess exactly when it will emerge - we'll schedule some events when we can to give you the heads-up about what it all means.

This bulletin has case studies on development management, neighbourhood planning and community consultation. We also update our ‘designation crystal ball’ and launch our new productivity benchmark. To close I’d like to plant a seed of an idea – why not commit to becoming a PAS planning peer as one of your New Year resolutions? Come along to our conference and meet a bunch of peers and see what it’s about.

New & Noteworthy

Short, sharp, simple ideas for improving

Case studies are useful but it can be difficult to find time to sit and read them. So we've taken a different approach and packaged up a collection of short, sharp and simple examples of how 5 well-performing councils are delivering their DM service. It's in clear sections so you can go quickly to the part that interests you the most and read the rest later. It's designed to complement our DM Challenge toolkit so that the two tools can be used side by side. 

Download here

Community engagement case studies 

PAS are pleased to publish the learning outputs from a number of DCLG-funded local authority projects aimed at improving community engagement in planning. The projects cover ways to engage local communities, making data open and accessible, and creative use of resources and integrated working. They relate both to neighbourhood planning and Local Plans.

Download the case studies

PAS Productivity & Resource Review – future-proofing the planning service 

Do you find yourself asking these questions:

• How do we deliver the best service we can and continue to improve with the resources we have? Is our structure right?
• How much work should we expect to get through?
• What would it take to make our planning service self-financing?
• How would our service fare in a competitive planning market? How do we protect the service if the council subsidy disappears?

These questions are difficult to answer without a good evidence base. We’re working with individual and groups of councils to help them understand the relationship between costs, income, productivity and performance so that they can make good decisions for the future in a world of constantly changing demands on resources.

More information here

Planning peer challenges 

The peer challenge process is really simple. A variety of external people ask some important and simple questions to everyone that matters. Then they tell you what they heard. The results are very powerful, and very helpful for people new in post (as officers and as portfolio holders).

With the challenges of performance, policy production, closer LPA working and ongoing resourcing it is a good time to make sure your planning service or planning committee is as good as it can be.
If you think you might benefit from peers providing intensive critical friend scrutiny and improvement recommendations then get in touch.

Read more here

Councillor Fracking training 

The government announced last week that there is a further £800k available to help mineral planning authorities with shale gas applications and we still have a couple opportunities for authorities to get a free councillor training sessions on handling shale applications. The workshops can be delivered at interested authorities as a half day or evening session.
The sessions will cover the decision making process and supporting information on fracking applications.
If you are interested send us an email but be quick.

Read the information sheet

Key Principles for managing Statistical (PS1/2) Returns 

Make sure your PS2 submissions are correct. A surprising number of people don't check them before they go, and fail to notice that negotiated timetables are not accounted for properly. Remember that a negotiated timetable that you deliver counts as a win, not just the absence of a loss. We've produced a guide - the 'key principles for managing statistical returns'. It's a useful guide and checklist for making sure you've got your submission correct.

Events

PAS Peers Conference 2017 – Beyond the White Paper 

Next year’s PAS Conference is all about supporting and building our peer network. While the world focuses on the immediate impacts of the White Paper, we’re inviting our officer and councillor peers to join us in going beyond that to look at how resources, policy, development management and politics need to come together now and in the future to deliver an effective planning system.

The conference will be a great opportunity to do some practical learning with colleagues that have been delivering work directly at councils, to hear from Chief Executives and Leaders on what big topics like devolution and the fast-approaching post-RSG world will mean for how councils deliver planning on the ground. We’ve also invited a range of guest speakers from government and within and beyond the world of public sector planning to challenge and debate the future direction of the planning system.

Working Peers go free as a “thank you” from us, prospective peers may be subsidised. Ticket price is £250 for a residential conference.

Book your place

For thought

Never mind the challenges of today, Martin Hutchings is looking ahead to 2020 and asking how well prepared planning will be to bridge the resources gap when council services will have to finance themselves.

Read the blog

DCLG are about to publish the next quarter’s planning statistics and use them to assess which authorities should be designated for poor performance for both majors and non-major applications (assessed separately). Those councils that are safely above the line for this year can't afford to switch off - next year's (January 2018) designation process is tougher, particularly on quality. If you are responsible for safeguarding DM performance you should review our advice and our ‘Designation Crystal Ball 2017’ on the KHub.

Other news

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) is an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Education to support all state funded education for pupils aged 3 to 19. The team’s forward planning work includes engaging with LAs to help them meet their statutory obligation to provide school places- working with Councils to offer advice and support in producing their Local Plans. This includes promoting best practice in relation to site allocations, policy documents and infrastructure plans to help secure education sites, and securing developer contributions to meet the demand for school places arising from housing development. Add them to your Local Plan consultation database so they are aware at an early stage of any formal consultations you undertake. For this please use email: yasmin.holmberg@education.gov.uk.

They would be happy to work with councils to help achieve the provision of school places. If you think the EFA could assist you or you wish to discuss any of the above, please contact in the first instance our Chief Planner, Brian.Smith@education.gov.uk.

Hot topics on the Knowledge Hub

We've listed a few of the most popular topics on the Knowledge Hub this month awaiting your input (you may have to be signed in reply).

Developers and custom build plots

CIL and existing buildings

Five Year supply calculations

More about the KHub

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