Young Planners Conference: Return to Core Values or Lawyers Paradise?
Along with colleagues from Alliance I had the pleasure of attending the excellent RTPI Young Planners Conference in Birmingham on Friday and Saturday of last week. The Conference is an annual opportunity for young planners from across the UK to gather and consider the planning issues of the day. Fittingly, the theme for this year was ‘planning for growth’ and with the media headlines seemingly full of negativity regarding the global economy it was heartening to spend some time thinking positively about what can be done to restore economic growth to our Country and, in particular, the role that planning and planners can play.
The planning system has of course been the subject of much debate focussed around the Coalition’s proposed reforms including the abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies and the production of a newly condensed National Planning Policy Framework for England. The message from Government seems to be that planners should not be concerned at the reduction in policy and instead make the most of the opportunity to focus once more on outcomes rather than process, as the founders of the planning movement seem to have been able.
The flip side is of course that the lawyers present at the Conference could see only a future of increased litigation in the more loosely defined draft NPPF. The question for the developers of today seems to be whether an increased risk of legal challenge would negate any benefits gained from the attempts to reduce the bureaucracy for which the planning system appears to have become known, and so whether the changes will be effective in facilitating the economic growth that is so badly needed.
By Richard Cooke
