The 'Localism Agenda':

 

Lucy and Penny attended this WWIC (Women Working in Construction) event at Wolverhampton Science Park on 23^rd March. They reported a very good debate with speakers presenting strong cases for (Steve Quartermain - Chief Planning Officer for Communities and Local Government) and against the Localism Bill (Waheed Nazir - Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council and Louise Brooke-Smith - Director of Brooke Smith Planning (representing the private sector's view). 

1)  Chief Planning Officer for Communities and Local Government - Steve Quartermain

Key Points:

• Government’s vision is for greater democratic and local control for sustainable growth.
• The current planning system is centralised and too complex
• Although the government proposes the abolition of Regional Strategies they recognise that there is still need for strategic coordination for cross-boundary issues

• The Bill will introduce 3 changes to the Community Infrastructure Levy The government will introduce a new Major Infrastructure Planning Unit within PINS (PINS is the planning inspectorate- responsible for the processing of appeals against the decision of a LPA and also for holding inquiries into local development plans.)
• They will introduce new Neighbourhood Planning Tools

• Applicants that can use the new Neighbourhood Planning Tools will include Parish Councils and Neighbourhood Forums.
• Neighbourhoods will be based on Parish/Town Council Boundaries and Electoral Wards.  The defining will be community initiated with the LPA having a key role in designating these areas.
• The LPA'S role also will include confined decision making, fund examination, they will have a duty to support the neighbourhood groups but only if asked!  They will have a duty to adopt what the community asks for.
• The community plans will need to generally conform to strategic policies and proposals.

 Both the Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council and the director of Brooke Smith Planning put up a strong argument against the Localism Bill as below:

2)  Waheed Nazir - Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council

 The council has concerns about how cross regional issues will be addressed by the Localism Bill.

• How can we ensure that the Community groups are an accurate representation of the local community? At the moment the Localism Bill allows people outside a community to sit on the community forum and make decisions for a community they are not part of.
• Does the council have available capacity to support these neighbourhood groups? - Birmingham City Council has been forced to cut 120 jobs out of their original 400 - the resource simply may not be there.
• Communities are already consulted through Supplementary Development Plans - why do the community plans have to become Development Plan Documents?
• How are the councils to communicate to the community how neighbourhood plans are to work? Currently they do not have the resource to do this. 
• There is a risk that through confusion caused by the changes in the planning systems, developments will occur that do not have permission - this means more work for the council to then take legal action.

Birmingham City Council has experience of working closely with communities.  In the case of Moseley a lot of the development was community driven and it was a positive exercise.  However, the council learnt some valuable lessons from this, for example:

• It was challenging for the community to engage the Environment Agency and Transport providers, not fully understanding all the issues.
• There were tensions between strategic issues and local desires, for example, the residents didn’t like the main road running through Moseley and even though it is the main route into Birmingham and vital for the area's growth.
• The Localism Bill hasn't given any indication of how these tensions are to be managed.

Birmingham City Coucil have developed a very clear approach to the way they would like to see the city develop as Action Plans for 5 key areas within the city, called the ‘Big City Plan’.  It is with this plan that they managed to secure John Lewis, who are investing in the area around New Street station.  It is only with this clear plan and assurance of the areas growth that businesses will invest in an area.

3)  Louise Brooke-Smith, Director of Brooke-Smith Planning (representing the general private sector view)

Brooke-Smith Planning are advising clients that they will need to work with this new system, however:-

• The changes will likely have a negative impact on development as the construction industry hesitates because of the uncertainty.
• There is no interim guidance on how we are to make the transition to this new system
• The RSS currently gives us guidance on amounts of new housing needed - how will this be delivered now?
• The Localism Bill will probably increase the amount of planning by appeal.
• It is likely that a patchwork of plans will come forward with no comprehensive approach
• NIMBISM will be an issue
• Who will fund this new system?
• At present there doesn't seem to be a timescale given for communities to produce Neighbourhood Plans.
• Will communities be permissive and proactive in promoting development?
• It is likely that small and medium scale developments will become more common.
• At the moment the Bill will allow communities to play developers off each other in order to get the best financial gains for the community - very dodgy game to get in to.