The Conservative Planning Green Paper published today, Open Source Planning, highlights the challenge that planning must grapple with the mediation of legitimate national needs and local aspirations.  

Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) Interim Chief Executive, Kate Henderson said:

"There are real opportunities to reform the planning system to both secure public legitimacy and to maximise its potential to deal with key issues such as housing and climate change.  Proposals in the Conservative's discussion paper on planning for a national framework for development are a step in the right direction towards the recommendations in our recently published report, Connecting Local Economies. However, any national framework on sustainable development must deliver on housing and climate change with social justice at its heart."

There are risks that major reform of the planning system will create even more investment uncertainty at a time when ten years of continual change are just about to come to an end. Therefore it is crucial that the transitional arrangements outlined in the paper go towards giving the confidence needed to inform local decision making.

Kate Henderson added:

"One of the key risks posed by the Conservative Planning Green Paper is around the abolition of regional plans without a clear and accountable strategic alternative. At a crucial time in the country's economic recovery it is important that the planning system's ability to deliver on key challenges such as employment, housing and renewable energy is not set back. While the regional tier has been flawed due to its lack of accountability, the need for planning at the sub-regional scale - which makes social, environmental and economic sense - remains overwhelming."

While there is much in the paper on reform, Open Source Planning does not provide detail on how the planning system will deal with implementing climate change obligations.

TCPA Chief Planner, Dr Hugh Ellis said:

"The Conservative Green Paper on planning does not reflect spatial planning's crucial role and ability to adapt to, and mitigate, the effects of climate change. Given the scale of the climate change challenge and the shift in acceptance that will be required to meet our national and EU renewable energy targets there is a clear need for climate change to be central to the planning framework. We are keen to work with the Conservative Party to ensure that planning reforms not only reflect the latest climate science, but provide clearer specific guidance as to the weight to be given to climate change in planning."

The TCPA will be responding to the Conservatives proposal in more detail following discussion with the Association's Policy Council.