Transcript Presentation

Planning in the Celtic areas
Greg Lloyd
School of the Built Environment
University of Ulster
Paper presented to the ESRC Seminar
“Localism, Welfare Reform and Tenure Restructuring in the UK”
Queen’s University Belfast
Thursday 24th – Friday 25th October 2013.
Presentation
 To explore the main developments in planning
arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland;
 To highlight the principal points of convergence
and divergence in the devolved landscapes;
 To consider the implications for Localism,
Welfare Reform and Tenure Restructuring in the
devolved UK.
Contexts
 Economic conditions – systemic
structural weaknesses
 Spatial variations ands new geographies
 The re-assertion of the core periphery
 Institutional hollowing out
 Economic weaknesses – supply chains
& skills
 Social and community tensions
 Environmental and ecological schisms
 Short termism in trade-offs, perceptions
and risks
Understandings
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Neo-liberalism - thinking and values
Austerity - policy and governance
Modernisation – the public sector
Culture change and challenges to the
ethos of planning
 Myopia and a denial of the future
 New parameters for planning in a new
world – growth or de-growth?
"All this stuff about planning ... Broad vistas
and all that. But give to me the 18th-century
alley, where foot-pads lurk, and the harlot plies
her trade, and none of this new-fangled
planning doctrine.“
Winston Churchill 1945
“No room! No
room! The
costs of
planning “
How a re-think
of our planning
policy
will
benefit Britain.
“Planning
Famine”
“Liberating the
Land”
“Neighbourhood
- Who Should
Plan?”
“Reforming land
use planning”
“Planning
Rape”
Cities
Unlimited
Bigger
Better
Faster
More.
Why
some
countries
plan
better
than
others.
Plannings in reality
 Land use planning – the statutory
regulation and forward management
of land and property development in
the public interest.
 Strategic planning – the territorial
management of land use and
development in the public interest.
 Spatial planning – goes further than
land use planning to embrace sector
planning, regeneration and local
service delivery.
 Community planning – well being.
General shifts
 There has been a move away from national economic
policy with redistribution
 There is a lack of a regional policy context – trickle
down
 There is a shift away from strategic considerations in
land use planning
 There is an emphasis on market spaces being created &
contested
Variations on a theme
 Historical experience and performance of land
use planning in the devolved states
 Governance arrangements and capacities
 Innovation in devising land use planning reforms
 Strategic agendas around policy at large
 Political economy perspectives
 Geographies, communities and environments
Devolution in the UK - Wales
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Welsh Assembly/ Government
Cardiff
Wales Spatial Plan
Land use planning reform
Community planning
Social democratic
Devolution in the UK - Scotland
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Scottish Parliament/ Government
Edinburgh
SNP
Meso-corporatist
Strategic planning provenance
National Planning Framework
Land use planning reform
Community planning
Devolution in the UK – Northern Ireland
• Northern Ireland Assembly/
Government
• Democratic Unionist Party/ Sinn Fein
– power sharing
• Belfast
• Regional Development Strategy
• Review of Public Administration
• Land use planning reform
• Neoliberal values
The turn to economic agendas
The NPPF in England (paragraph 158) – relevant market
and economic signals:
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Land prices
House prices
Rents
Affordability
Rates of development
Overcrowding
Planning Policy Wales November 2012
 Jobs growth, plus retention and protection
 Realistic assessment of demand
 Planners must speak to economic development officers
Planning Bill 2013 Northern Ireland
 Balance of economic advantage/ disadvantage
 Promotion of economic development
Scotland Single Policy Statement 2013
 Sustainable economic growth
Wales
Planning Act 2008 / Spatial plan
Independent Advisory Group Report “Planning in Wales”
2012
Sustaining a Living Wales Green Paper 2012
Planning Bill 2013
Environment Bill White Paper 2013
Independent Advisory Group Report
 Welsh Ministers taking decisions on nationally
significant devolved infrastructure schemes;
 Preparation of a national framework within which
local planning authorities deliver local plans;
 A statutory framework for strategic planning
above individual planning authorities – city
regions;
 Establishment of a planning advisory and
improvement body.
Scotland – a strategic
provenance
“There is a need to prepare an indicative plan for Scotland on a
national scale which will show how it is intended to utilise the land
for urban, industrial and recreational purposes.
“To prepare such a policy plan it will be necessary to take into
account the views of planning authorities, industrialists, trade
unions and many other interested parties. The structure plans of
the new regional planning authorities must conform to the
national indicative plan.”
(Select Committee on Land Resource Use in Scotland 1970)
Strategic planning traditions
 Metropolitan planning – West
Central Scotland
 Regional planning – NESJPAC
 Regional Reports
 National Planning Guidelines – a
single planning policy statement
Land Use Strategy 2011
 The first strategy was published in March 2011 and articulated
an ambitious vision together with objectives relating to
economic prosperity, environmental quality and community well
being.
 The strategy asserts 10 principles to secure sustainable land
use – which stress, inter alia, the multiple benefits of the
resource, the importance of regulation, an ecosystem approach
to land management and the better understanding of the role of
land in everyday living and working.
 It is predicated on a more holistic understanding of the land
ecosystem and the case for an integrated approach to
facilitating land uses.
Northern Ireland
•Centralised institutions
•Fragmented organisations
•Technocratic & administrative inertia
•Democratic deficits
•Advocacy politics
Components of Planning in Northern Ireland
Regional Development Strategy
Planning Policy
Statements
Development Plan
Planning Applications
Northern Ireland
Planning Act 2011
Local Government Reform
Planning Bill 2013
Programme for Government
Marine Bill
Economic Strategy
Strategic Policy reform
Investment Strategy
Community Planning
Regional Development
Strategy
Elements of land use planning reform
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Emphasis on plan led thinking
Strategic agendas
Front loaded civil engagement
Proportionate decision making
Enforcement
Third Party Rights of Appeal?
Authoritarian – individualistic
Democratic - corporatist
Silent conversations - shouting
loudly
Culture change – reflective practice
Non - strategic
Strategic
Fragmented
Integrated
Blind growth
Limits and parameters
Towards a new determinism?
 Economic limits to growth and
action?
 Political innovation and
leadership?
 Social anger and exasperation?
 Community divisions?
 Institutional capacities?
 Environmental parameters?
 Environment extremes?
 Resource limits?
 Dystopia not utopia