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A Manifesto for Planning : Section 3 The Way Forward for Positive Planning A top priority now must be how to achieve more beneficial outcomes from the planning system rather than the current narrow minded focus on process. This may be by local authorities or through new mechanisms such as Urban Regeneration Companies. It will be achieved not solely by legislation but by the acceptance of the need for change by planners, other professionals, politicians and the community as a whole.
The RTPI believes that a strong and positive planning system is vital to support enterprise and economic growth and to ensure that this growth benefits all parts of the country and the different communities within it. Effective planning brings greater certainty for investment, ensures robust development, delivers an efficient pattern of land use and ensures that development is of a high quality and is in the right place at the right time.
The RTPI believes that there is an urgent need to take practical steps to tackle the imbalance between the economies of the regions and nations making up the UK and the differences in opportunities and the quality of life for individuals according to location. It is not economically efficient nor socially equitable to have such a divergence of circumstances and it is environmentally disastrous. The Government has a target to reduce the difference in the rates of growth between regions. This objective should be pursued at a UK-national level.
Environmental, social and economic justice are at the heart of planning. Concepts of sustainable development become real and urgent when tackled within the context of planning. Thinking must move on from a simple equation of sustainable development with environmental protection to a more sophisticated way of thinking which acknowledges both the need for development of the right sort to provide economic and social benefits and the requirement to manage demand for non-renewable resources.
The control and regulation of development is a vital tool for the positive development of an area but it is not an end in itself. It must be seen within a context of managing necessary urban and rural change to achieve the greatest benefit. The RTPI believes that, as a straightforward signifier of this new positive thinking, the term development control should be changed to ‘development management’.
The target culture that pervades UK Government promotes short term thinking that works against achieving quality and equity. There is a role for indicators, but they need to be balanced with mechanisms that recognise and value quality and equity as the outcomes that we seek. The quality of places created, the accessibility of these to all that use them, the benefits that they bring and the degree to which they result from local involvement must be the ways in which planning is judged. It is now time to move on from a system that simply judges the speed taken to make a decision – whether that decision is good or bad.
There is a need for a reappraisal of the boundaries of detailed control. The new Local Development Orders in England and the delegation of decisions to officers – both within strong policy frameworks - are steps in the right direction. But the RTPI wants a more thorough review which looks again at the role of local planning, not as an arbiter of neighbour disputes but as the promoter of quality and equity in the wider public good.
Planning is a political process and democratic involvement is vital to ensure that solutions are representative, locally sensitive and just. That means much more than providing a voice for those who seek to resist any development. Planning needs to take courageous decisions which reflect social needs as well as environmental protection. This will only be possible when we have genuine commitment to a process of education and informed debate about the issues and consequences of plans and planning decisions.
There is a need to forge new relationships with communities. In the past, planning was at the forefront of public involvement. If new approaches to development and renewal are to succeed, then there is a need for community ownership of solutions. The expanded Planning Aid service will demonstrate a new approach to community planning. Planning needs to be at the forefront of strategies to end discrimination, to secure equality of opportunity and to create equal access to services and places and to improve the quality of life.
The RTPI believes that there is the need to be more interventionist in developing better practice, encouraging new approaches and in supporting planners themselves in both the public and private sectors. It has already developed an initiative to support planners in their workplace and is developing models for practice development and advice.
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| RTPI: A Manifesto for Planning | December 2003 |