Kelvin MacDonald from the UK’s Royal Town Planning Institute spoke to Radio 4’s Today Programme this week about the void that has been created through the abolition of regional plans.
30 organisations including the World Wildlife Fund, the National Home Builders Federation, and the Council for the Protection of Rural England have come together to voice their concerns about the sudden withdrawal of planning policy ‘above the neighbourhood level’. They are worried that ministers will miss the bigger picture if environmental protection, housing and planning is left to localism – putting the national interest at risk.
MacDonald said that the organisations want to work with the government to deal with the problem and said that local authorities had already stopped planning for new housing.
Earlier this week RTPI president Ann Skippers told Planning Magazine that “The most pressing issues facing the nation, for example, such as the housing crisis, economic recovery, climate change and biodiversity loss, cannot be dealt with solely at a local level”. A letter has been sent to local government Minster Eric Picles urging him to consider the national interest and to fully involve the consortium on the drafting of the new Decentralisation and Localism Bill.
Before pushing through the Localism Bill, the Communites and Local Government Committee has decided to undertake an inquiry into the abolition of regional spatial strategies (regional level plans). Interested parties have been invited to submit evidence by 15th September. The inquiry is to focus on the implications of abandoning regional housing targets and what arrangements are to be put in place to deal with waste, minerals, flooding, the natural environment and renewable energy. A copy of the submission should be sent by e-mail to clgev@parliament.uk and marked “abolition of regional spatial strategies”
