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The sun is shining and the Housing Delivery Test (HDT) results have finally been published, what more could a planner want?
Of course there is a lot more to be thinking about than HDT but this has rightly been occupying our headspace for many months. We have designed a programme of support for councils that assists with the impact and outcomes of this announcement, see below for further information.
We are also working with councils to determine what a plan review should look like so that we can update our checklist. This is going to be a lively area as many plans need reviewing and most will need to be updated, but we would like to help you to prevent this becoming another area of contention between councils and others. In parallel, we are also working out what proportionate evidence is so that we can provide you with some guidance and best practice. These programmes will produce results in April so watch this space.
I have been attending and speaking at events about design and planning, a bit like buses they all come at once. It’s clear to me that design, just like planning, means different things to different people. For some it's about what something looks like and for others it’s about how it works. Planners have a core role in designing existing and future places and we need to be confident that we already have skills to fulfill that role. We will, however, need help from other professions if we are to move this agenda forward.
From the talks I’ve heard, a good place to start would be to always have in mind that these are places that people live and work in. Even a change in terminology helps, after all people don’t live in units, kids don’t play in public open space and we don’t walk on highways. The other key element of improving design is to engage in a continuous cycle of monitoring and evaluation. How many of us still visit schemes in the development stage to see how they work? How do we address elements that don’t work? How do we stop them happening again? You could say that we need to get back to plan, monitor, manage.
Kind regards,
Anna Rose
Head of PAS
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) published the results of the first ever HDT on 19 February 2019. This starts the six-month timetable for 108 Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to publish their Action Plan by 19 August 2019. This is slightly more than we were expecting, and we are thinking about how best to support that number using a mix of regional, online and self-support work.
We understand that the data was prepared in November and may have become out of date (for example, where councils have recently adopted a plan) and that councils might need to ask for their data to be recalculated. Otherwise, while there may be some debate around the edges the message is “just get on with it”.
To help us help you get on with it we need a lead officer from each of the 108 LPAs so we can talk directly to the cohort and agree how to deliver the support we have organised. We are setting up a specific mailing list to be able to talk directly to the 108 . If your result is below 95 per cent, visit our SurveyMonkey page and let us know who you are.
We have been working with some pilot councils making their Action Plans. We have just published another three from Gateshead, RBK&C and Redbridge with a couple of others still tied up in sign-off process .
We've been working with over 50 authorities to produce an advice note and template to help local authorities to develop their Statement of Common Ground and it is now available on the PAS website.
We’ve tried to make a simple and flexible template that all councils can start with as they work together on their statements. Talk to stephen.barker@local.gov.uk if you have any thoughts on it. Our hope is that this template will provide a starting point for everyone and a bit of consistency for people reading the statements.
You may have heard Steve Quartermain (the Chief Planner) say recently that Government is keen to understand and respond to the long-term capacity and skills pressure in the sector. PAS and the LGA have agreed to run a “quick and dirty” survey of planning departments in March in advance of a bigger and deeper study into place-making later this year.
It will provide Government with a realistic assessment of what happened after the most recent 20 per cent fee increase, and channel your ideas about what a long-term fix looks like. You can see some more details on what we are trying to achieve on the website.
If you don't receive the survey next week we may have sent it to the wrong person. Let us know by emailing PAS.Survey@local.gov.uk and we will send it out to you.
A follow up to our popular July event where we introduced the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This event is for chief planners only (who don't tend to come to our subject specific sessions). Please register your interest with Annie at pas@local.gov.uk
Over 65 officers attended the strategic planning events in London, Liverpool and Nottingham. We heard from local authority speakers about their experiences to date ranging from those who had delivered Joint Plans to those at an early stage in the process. The evaluation forms (which were mostly filled in!) gave us some really useful insight into what support may help authorities moving forward with strategic planning.
We announced at the Nottingham event that the initial three groups we would be working with were: South West Hertfordshire, Greater Nottingham and the Liverpool Combined Authority. There is an opportunity to work with further groups and those that expressed an interest are still being considered unless they have been contacted about being involved in other PAS work. View the slides
We’ve completely updated the Library of the Shale KnowledgeHub. It contains advice, guidance, factsheets and details of key parliamentary debates and questions. The Shale KnowledgeHub is open to local planning authority planners and councillors - join up here (sign in required).
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