Planning shapes the places where people live and work and the country we live in. Good planning ensures that we get the right development, in the right place and at the right time. It makes a positive difference to people’s lives and helps to deliver homes, jobs, and better opportunities for all, whilst protecting and enhancing the natural and historic environment, and conserving the countryside and open spaces that are vital resources for everyone. But poor planning can result in a legacy for current and future generations of run-down town centres, unsafe and dilapidated housing, crime and disorder, and the loss of our finest countryside to development.
Good planning is a positive and proactive process, operating in the public interest through a system of plan preparation and control over the development and use of land.
Sustainable development is the core principle underpinning planning. At the heart of sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for future generations. A widely used definition was drawn up by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
The Government set out four aims for sustainable development in its 1999 strategy2. These are:
• social progress which recognises the needs of everyone;
• effective protection of the environment;
• the prudent use of natural resources; and,
• the maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment.
These aims should be pursued in an integrated way through a sustainable, innovative and productive economy that delivers high levels of employment, and a just society that promotes social inclusion, sustainable communities and personal well being, in ways that protect and enhance the physical environment and optimise resource and energy use.
Planning should facilitate and promote sustainable and inclusive patterns of urban and rural development by:
• making suitable land available for development in line with economic, social and environmental objectives to improve people’s quality of life;
• contributing to sustainable economic development;
• protecting and enhancing the natural and historic environment, the quality and character of the countryside, and existing communities;
• ensuring high quality development through good and inclusive design, and the efficient use of resources; and,
• ensuring that development supports existing communities and contributes to the creation of safe, sustainable, liveable and mixed communities with good access to jobs and key services for all members of the community.
The principles of sustainable development have been incorporated in the Government’s vision for sustainable communities, set out in Sustainable Communities – building for the future.
Planning has a key role to play in the creation of sustainable communities: communities that will stand the test of time, where people want to live, and which will enable people to meet their aspirations and potential.
To help meet these broad objectives, the country needs a transparent, flexible, predictable, efficient and effective planning system that will produce the quality development needed to deliver sustainable development and secure sustainable communities. National policies and regional and local development plans (regional spatial strategies and local development frameworks) provide the framework for planning for sustainable development and for that development to be managed effectively. Plans should be drawn up with community involvement and present a shared vision and strategy of how the area should develop to achieve more sustainable patterns of development.
This plan-led system, and the certainty and predictability it aims to provide, is central to planning and plays the key role in integrating sustainable development objectives. Where the development plan contains relevant policies, applications for planning permission should be determined in line with the plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.
Local communities, businesses, the voluntary sector and individuals have a right to a high quality service that is fast, fair, open, transparent and consistent and respects the cost, effort and commitment that has gone into engagement in plan making and in preparing and submitting applications. Planning authorities must ensure that plans are kept up to date and that planning applications are dealt with expeditiously, while addressing the relevant issues. Planning authorities should ensure also that they have in place appropriate arrangements for enforcement.
However, planning authorities need to go further. Under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 every local planning authority now has a responsibility for reporting, on an annual basis, the extent to which policies set out in local development plans are being achieved. Their role, therefore, is not restricted to plan making and development control, but involves facilitating and promoting the implementation of good quality development. They should therefore aim to provide a good quality service for managing the development of their area: making plans, dealing with development consents and assisting implementation, striving for continuous improvement with regard to matters such as openness, customer service and stakeholder satisfaction.
Planning is a tool for local authorities to use in establishing and taking forward the vision for their areas as set out in their community strategies. The planning process already offers local communities real opportunities to influence how they want their areas to develop. More effective community involvement is a key element of the Government’s planning reforms. This is best achieved where there is early engagement of all the stakeholders in the process of plan making and bringing forward development proposals. This helps to identify issues and problems at an early stage and allows dialogue and discussion of the options to take place before proposals are too far advanced.
Pre-application discussions are critically important and benefit both developers and local planning authorities in ensuring a better mutual understanding of objectives and the constraints that exist. In the course of such discussions proposals can be adapted to ensure that they better reflect community aspirations and that applications are complete and address all the relevant issues. Local planning authorities and applicants should take a positive attitude towards early engagement in pre-application discussions so that formal applications can be dealt with in a more certain and speedy manner and the quality of decisions can be better assured.
(Reproduced under Crown Copyright license from Planning Policy Statement 1: Delivering Sustainable Development, February 2005, ISBN 0 11 753939 2)
