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Reforming the UK's planning system to make it more responsive to people's needs and aspirations and to promote sustainable development has always been at the heart of the TCPA's mission.
While planning can claim many substantial achievements, the current system has often been criticised as out of touch with ordinary people's lives and not fit for purpose in securing lasting progress on key issues facing us today.The new coalition Government is advocating much greater collaborative democracy and placing a strong emphasison localism. Recognising that one of the key challenges to the planning system is public trust, the Government is proposing to ‘radically reform the planning system'. Therefore, the TCPA could not have picked a more appropriate moment to undertake a constructive cross-sector dialogue on developing a leaner, more focused, fairer and more effective planning system.
Drawing on feedback from over 100 participants in five cross-sector roundtable debates organised and hosted by the TCPA in spring 2010, plus extensive feedback received from the wider profession, this report aims to address key issues for the future of planning. The roundtable events looked closely at the proposals set out in the Conservative Party Policy Green Paper, Open Source Planning - the foundations for the new Government's reform package. The debates strongly benefited from the TCPA's uniquely broad support from, and links with, the publicsector, the development industry, the environmental movement, and those concerned with social justice.
We hope that this report on the roundtable debates will act as a catalyst for politicians, decision-makers, planners and other interested professionals to work towards creating a fairer and more efficient planning system. By undertaking this thorough analysis of the challenges facing the system, a series of solution-focused recommendations have been compiled, as set out within the report and listed together on the inside back cover.
The TCPA statement Making Planning Work: A peaceful path to real reform, also informed by the roundtable debates, sets out the four principles the TCPA believes need to be considered in future planning reform. It urges the coalition Government to build a new consensus around the principles to underpinreforms and start an open dialogue with local communities across the country, business, investors and professionals, to agree these principles.