Planning professionals have welcomed the measures in the first King's Speech under the new Labour government, and the intent it suggests to get homes built and infrastructure provided, whilst questioning skills and capacity.
One of the 40 proposed laws featured reforms to streamline the planning process to accelerate the delivery of "high-quality infrastructure and housing".
The King said: "My ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing [planning and infrastructure bill]. They will also pursue sustainable growth by encouraging investment in industry, skills and new technologies".
According to the background briefing notes to the speech, the Infrastructure and Planning Bill will:
Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
The RTPI highlights emphasis on the planning system's pivotal role in the government's plan to revive the UK economy.
Victoria Hills, Chief Executive of the RTPI, commented: "The government has laid the groundwork for achieving its housing and infrastructure ambitions by setting plans to increase the capacity of local planning authorities. We believe that these measures will not only restore trust in the planning system but also demonstrate that with sufficient resources, the planning system can effectively create spaces where communities can thrive".
"It is essential for planners to make a significant impact within the government's first parliamentary term. To achieve this, measures such as ring-fencing resources, allowing councils to set their own fees at an appropriate level for their area, and enabling full cost recovery for their services need to be implemented quickly".
Discussing the modernisation of planning committees, Hills said this is needed and could include a national scheme of delegation, allowing planning officers to make some decisions themselves: "Qualified planners should be able to implement agreed planning policy, freeing up councillors’ time to focus on the most challenging planning cases. This change would help to unblock many applications and speed up the planning process".
"The RTPI will also be considering how our experiences running the Politicians in Planning Network (PiPN) can inform any new training for politicians on planning committees. We will also examine how the hybrid or virtual planning committee models, which we successfully advocated for, can help to open up the planning process to a more diverse and inclusive range of people".
Hills also noted that the RTPI has been calling for metro mayors to have strategic planning powers and welcomed the announcements in the speech of devolution as an essential step to ensure that new housing developments are well located and integrated in industrial strategy, to deliver the billions in economic growth that RTPI research has shown is possible.
Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE)
David Hawkes, Interim Associate Director of Policy at the ICE said: "Strategic, well-planned, well-delivered infrastructure improves people's lives".
"While more detail is needed on the legislation the new government has proposed in the King’s Speech, it is encouraging to see the scope and ambition of its plans for energy, transport, devolution, and planning reform".
"Now it’s time to pick up the pace and deliver an infrastructure system that can meet the UK’s economic, social, and environmental goal".
Federation of Master Builders (FMB)
Brian Berry, Chief Executive at the FMB said: "It is positive that the new government has already made tackling the UK’s housing crisis a key priority. For too long we’ve underdelivered on housing delivery and pushed out smaller housebuilders from the market. However, these bold plans will only be successful if the current skills crisis in the construction industry is addressed. We are substantially lacking the skilled workers required to build new homes and to upgrade our existing homes with the energy-efficiency improvements that Labour have pledged. The UK is in desperate need of a long-term skills plan to establish clear pathways into careers in construction. Unless this is delivered it is difficult to see how 1.5 million new homes will be built over the next five years".
"One startling omission is the lack of plans to upgrade the existing housing stock. We had been expecting to see a bold plan to retrofit five million homes to make them greener and more energy efficient but clearly, the purse strings have not been opened enough to allow for this. While we should be looking to build more homes we mustn’t take our eye off the existing housing stock, which is the oldest and leakiest in Europe".
Home Builders Federation (HBF)
Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the HBF, said: "The ambition on housing delivery and policy proposals put forward to deliver them are positive and welcome. Planning has been the biggest constraint on housebuilding in recent years and the measures proposed will address the main areas of concern by bringing more land forward for development more quickly".
"Housing delivery has a range of determinants and will require a number of policy areas [to be] addressed. Moves to unblock the planning system are a huge step forward, but we will also need to see moves to help increase mortgage availability, especially for young people, if we are to get to the levels government is aiming to deliver".
"Building the homes the country needs will address the social issues our housing crisis is creating, provide young people with access to decent housing whilst creating tens of thousands of jobs and boosting investment in communities in every area of the country".
Landscape Institute
Carolin Göhler FLI, President of the Landscape Institute, said: "The Landscape Institute (LI) supports the government’s emphasis on growth and welcomes its proposals to reform the planning system, provided that all new development is well-designed, constructed and managed to ensure its sustainability and fitness for future generations to enjoy. In meeting challenging targets for both housing and infrastructure, we should be taking a long-term view of costs and consequences, and ensure that the wider environment is properly valued. Taking a landscape-led approach to both plans and projects can help enable opportunities, avoid unexpected adversities, and provide better value solutions".
"The LI recognises the need to expedite improvements to our creaking infrastructure, notably in transport, energy, water and drainage. The potential adverse impacts of major schemes, and how these may be avoided or managed, must be properly considered, particularly in view of rural landscapes. However, large-scale developments may also present opportunities and unlock funding for beneficial enhancements beyond operational objectives in terms of better land management, nature recovery and ecosystem services. A more collaborative and holistic approach to project management between government departments and between developers and planning authorities – through early engagement of landscape professionals to develop multifunctional landscapes – could bring dividends in terms of cost, time and the quality of outcomes to benefit people and nature. It may also reduce opposition and enable the swifter delivery of better-quality schemes".
"Multidisciplinary skills are needed: The proposal to increase the numbers of public sector planners is welcome, but there is also a real need to invest in a range of new green skills in landscape, ecology and construction to contribute to creating environments that work for people and nature. There is a significant skills shortage in both the delivery and management side of the landscape, so we urge the government to positively support and promote the education and training of sector skills at university and college level".
