"I'm convinced this will genuinely incentivise planning authorities to perform in the way we want them to..."
I came across this rather worrying article (dated last Friday) regarding the new SNP Minister for L Gov and Planning, Derek Mackay and his plans for the future of the planning system in Scotland. It seems that we really can expect very big changes to planning from this new SNP Government Minister. I know that I have already mentioned a lot about all the proposed planning reforms but seeing everything laid out here in this article certainly gave me a far stronger sense of foreboding than I had before and increased my concerns that any talk of community empowerment from the Government will remain just that, talk, for evermore.
The article begins:
The extent of the changes to Scotland's planning system may be as significant as those in England, but the country's planning minister is trying to avoid provocation in his dealings with the sector, reports John Geoghegan.
One thing that particularly stands out from the article is when the author writes:
...The most eye-catching initiative among these is a plan to link improved planning performance by local authorities with a rise in the fees they can charge for processing applications. The government is proposing to allow councils to charge up to £100,000, up from a current cap of £15,950. But if an authority fails to raise its game, it will be forced to return to the current fee level and repay any charges made above that level. The performance of authorities will be judged on the basis of the government's new Planning Performance Framework (PPF), which provides a checklist for councils to measure their performance against. Speed of decisions is a central factor but it also includes other issues such as quality of development, customer service and level of resources.
Mackay says developers have told him that they are willing to pay more if he can create an improved system based on "certainty, fairness and swift assessment". Critics, however, say penalising already hard-hit local authorities will not improve performance. Mackay replies that the sanction would only be a last resort and would follow a probe into why a particular authority was performing poorly.
"I'm convinced this will genuinely incentivise planning authorities to perform in the way we want them to. I don't think it will ever come to using the sanction, but if I need to use it, I will."
The article continues further on:
Despite Mackay's eagerness to shake-up the system and improve performance, don't expect any Westminster-style pronouncements of planners as "enemies of enterprise". Mackay says he enjoys "a positive relationship with planners", adding: "You can only get the buy-in of the profession if you work with them. I don't see bashing folk over the head for the sake of it as a helpful way to deliver change."
Mackay claims that this "constructive and positive" approach has helped Scotland to get ahead of the curve compared with the rest of the UK on planning reform. (APTSec underline) "We are delivering a quiet revolution in planning, but we are doing it methodically and with stakeholders," he says. "We are focused on delivering growth, but protecting our heritage too. That's part of our economic strategy."
Further extracts from article:
Derek Mackay isn't messing about. Scotland's minister for local government and planning may only have started the job last December, but he is already driving wholescale reform of the planning system. And the reform process, which began before Mackay's arrival in the post, is as far-reaching as anything currently taking place in England.
In March, he announced a package of measures designed to streamline and improve the planning system, in a document titled Planning Reform - Next Steps. Then last month, Mackay told the Scottish Parliament that the government intended to carry out a further shake-up by updating two national planning strategies.
First, he announced a review of Scottish Planning Policy (SPP), which guides how planning authorities should deal with applications and development plans, and is the equivalent of England's National Planning Policy Framework. Second, he laid out a programme for drawing up the third National Planning Framework (NPF3), Scotland's top-level spatial document that sets out strategic priorities, including major developments, for the next 20 to 30 years.
The full article can be found here
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