Research carried out by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation recommends that climate change should be re-prioritised in local plans and that clarity must be provided on the legal requirements of climate change.
The publication "Planning For The Climate Challenge? Understanding The Performance Of English Local Plans", considers how local plans since the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) are targeting climate change.
The research summarises "the nation is critically unprepared for climate change, critically unprepared in relation to the risks as we understand them now, absolutely critically unprepared over time".
It also goes on to criticise that "local planning authorities are not supported by a national agency to secure national carbon dioxide emissions reduction objectives, while the specific challenge of flooding is reliant upon the support of the Environment Agency".
The research points out that the criticism given is less to do with local planning and planners and more to do with the Government and their need to refocus systems to look at outcomes that will result in secure, resilient and low carbon places.
Ten recommendations are given in the report including that climate change should be reprioritised in the local plan system, clarity should be provided in national policy and spatial planning must be encouraged over the long term.
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