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 BelfastThursday 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 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

“Reforming land use planning”

“Planning Rape”

“Planning Famine”

“Liberating the Land”

“Neighbourhood - Who Should

Plan?”

“No room! No room! The

costs of planning “

How a re-think of our planning policy will benefit Britain.

Bigger Better Faster More. Why some countries plan better than others.

Cities Unlimited

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• Welsh Assembly/ Government• Cardiff• Wales Spatial Plan• Land use planning reform• Community planning • Social democratic

Devolution in the UK - Scotland

• 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 agendasThe NPPF in England (paragraph 158) – relevant market and economic signals:

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 Applications

Development Plan

Planning Policy Statements

Northern Ireland

Planning Act 2011

Planning Bill 2013

Marine Bill

Strategic Policy reform

Community Planning

Local Government Reform Programme for Government Economic Strategy

Investment Strategy

Regional Development Strategy

Elements of land use planning reform

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