Town planners warn against making financial considerations material in planning

The government’s recent amendment to the Localism Bill to make financial considerations a material consideration is “deeply flawed and potentially very damaging to proper planning”, town planners have claimed.

Calling in a briefing to MPs for the amendment to be withdrawn, the Royal Town Planning Institute said the change also contradicted assurances given by ministers only 12 weeks ago.

The Institute warned that the change, if implemented, could mean that money from the New Homes Bonus could outweigh other factors, such as the views of the local community and environmental, social and wider economic concerns.

The Institute’s claims come just days after the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England described the amendment as legalising “cash for sprawl”.

The RTPI briefing also:

• Called for support for the government amended Clause 90, which is designed to strengthen planning at the larger-than-local level through an enhanced duty to cooperate
• Suggested that the proposed arrangements for neighbourhood planning were excessively complex. “This may mean that neighbourhood planning will not be as visionary, inclusive, widespread or effective as intended,” the Institute said, adding that government amendments so far did not deal with many of the outstanding issues
• Urged the government to embody the National Planning Policy Framework in statute in the Bill to ensure it is effective.

The RTPI said it had a number of other concerns about the Bill and that these would be dealt with when the legislation enters the House of Lords. These issues include provisions in relation to local planning, pre-application consultation and planning enforcement.

The Institute also had concerns about some of the proposals in the Bill not specifically related to planning, such as pre-determination, the right to challenge community assets and referendums that “have the potential to have an adverse impact on effective planning”.

The Institute nevertheless praised Planning Minister Greg Clark for showing a willingness to work with stakeholders to make the Bill a better piece of legislation. It urged the minister to continue to listen and respond to concerns that remain.

RTPI President Richard Summers said: “We congratulate the Government on strengthening the duty to cooperate but believe other parts of the Localism Bill could still be improved. Further changes are needed if some of the key aims of the Bill are to be realised such as enabling communities to develop their vision for the future of their area through neighbourhood plans, to enable priorities for investment to be decided at both the local and national levels and to tackle the challenges of climate change, sustainable economic growth and social inequity."

Philip Hoult