Following on from the publication last year of the report of the Select Committee on National Policy for the Built Environment, it was debated in the House of Lords on Tuesday 24 January, with Baroness Andrews leading discussions.
Civic Voice writes:
The Committee published its report on 19th February 2016. The National Policy for the Built Environment Committee was appointed in June 2015 to consider the development and implementation of national policy for the built environment.
Civic Voice vice-president Baroness Andrews sits on the committee and has been Civic Voice’s representative in the House of Lords on a number of occasions.
Baroness Andrews stated during the debate ‘We are not going to disagree in our committee that the response must be on local and neighbourhood determination, but there is, and must remain, a prime role for local plan-making as a whole and for maintaining the right balance of development and sustainability. We have to have a guaranteed supply of qualified planners for the future as well as the present. That was precisely what was reflected in the stream of evidence that we received of the impact of budget cuts, the haemorrhage of experienced planners and conservation officers and the huge pressures to prioritise housing development over everything else. That concerns everyone ?with an interest in good place-making, from developers to Civic Voice. This is precisely why we made recommendations to increase the supply and training of planners, and on the necessity to look for alternative ways in which to fund planning services.’
Baroness Andrews went on to add ‘Finally, when we suggested the need for more incentives to promote greater co-operation between local authorities, the Government referred us to existing NPPF policy around the duty to co-operate. Since then, we know that there is more in the Neighbourhood Planning Bill—but those are not incentives; they are more like sticks, and it is not clear how they will be enforced. They do not compensate for the lack of spatial planning at regional or sub-regional level, where you can really form a policy.’
Read the Select Committee report on National Policy for the Built Environment and read the full transcript from the recent debate.
