National Charity calls for communities to have a say throughout planning process

National charity Civic Voice has urged all political parties to commit to giving communities a "meaningful voice" at every stage of the planning system.

In its manifesto for the forthcoming general election on 12 December, Civic Voice emphasises an urgent need for the rebalancing of power, to create an "accessible, balanced and collaborative (ABC) planning system" that ensures conversations are had with everyone, not just those who are already engaged.

Joan Humble, Chair of Civic Voice, commented on the lack of trust in the planning system, with very little faith in developers and local authorities when it comes to planning for large-scale development.

“We can either ignore this research and carry on as we are and continue to face the same challenges in building the homes the nation needs, or we can accept that the system is not working for local people and do something about it".

As well as calling for an ABC planning system, the manifesto outlines a number of other requests, including:

• introduction of a pre-application community consultation stage and a limited community right of the appeal into the planning system;
• strengthening of statements of community involvement so they are set out in accessible English, and explain how the local authority and developers will be expected to meaningfully engage with local communities on planning;
• introducing an "Office for Public Participation" to oversee standards and consistency in public consultations. For major developments it would be an independent 'honest broker' to carry out the pre-application consultation with the local community, removing any perceived conflict of interest for the developer.

Humble explained, "whether right or wrong, people believe that the decisions impacting their local area are not made locally, but by outside interests, who, once the development has finished, move on. By calling for a meaningful right to participate at every stage of the planning system, we can change this. With the use of new planning technology, there is no reason why this cannot happen".

Ian Harvey, director of Civic Voice added "we have a planning system that may not be completely broken, but it certainly needs rebalancing and fixing to work better for communities. Doing so will ensure we build a modern planning system with communities at the heart. With these changes, we believe we can build the homes that we need and ensure that everyone in England can say, ‘we care about where we live’".

For more information on this subject, see:

• Civic Voice Manifesto 2020-2023.