Planning: delivering for Wales Programme

Planning: delivering for Wales, launched two years ago, is an ambitious and wide-reaching programme of change seeking to ensure an improved delivery of the Planning service.

I am taking this opportunity to review our achievements over the last year and to look forward to the next steps.  As well as making many improvements to the planning system, I want to drive forward a cultural change in the delivery of the service.

The new proposal for community involvement in Local Development Plans represents a key element of our planning reforms and links to our commitment to participation as part of sustainable development. The key principles that underpin this process include:

• Creating the conditions for early involvement  and feedback at a stage when people can recognise a chance to influence the plan;
• Encouraging the commitment of all participants to an open and honest debate on realistic development alternatives in the search for a consensus; and
• Recognising the need to adopt approaches for engaging the community including business, which seek the views of those not normally involved.

These principles reflect our vision in Planning: delivering for Wales to ensure that the planning system in Wales:

• is open, fair and transparent,
• inspires public and business confidence,
• delivers improved quality and speed,
• integrates with other plans, processes and actions, and
• meets Assembly Government’s overall objectives.

Achievements

The Planning: delivering for Wales programme comprises over 160 individual tasks; over 30 tasks have been completed and more than 50 others are underway.   These can best be delivered via continued partnership working between the Assembly Government, local government, business, and voluntary sectors.  

We now have the opportunity to ‘work with the grain’ of public service reform in the context of:

• the wider aspirations of the Assembly Government set out in Wales: A Better Country,
  
• the Planning Agreement signed by the Assembly Government and the Welsh Local Government Association, and
  
• the First Minister’s statement on “Making the connections”.

Over the last year we have delivered :

• The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, with its key Welsh clauses on Local Development Plans and the Wales Spatial Plan.
  
• Consultation on “Delivering Better Development Plans for Wales” and publication of revised transitional guidance which makes each local authority responsible for the decision on when to move to the new system of Local Development Plans.
  
• major changes in style of working, involving a far wider number of people in developing policies for Planning which are recognised as being at the “leading edge” in UK terms.  Both the Wales Planning Forum and the Planning: delivering for Wales Programme Board have played, and continue to play, key roles in this.     This way of working has set a firm basis for developing and implementing our new Local Development Plan system, and for the Wales Spatial Plan.  
  
• sustainable development integrated into our planning policy and technical advice. This includes guidance on Strategic Environmental Assessment for Unitary Development Plan.  Other examples include the publication of  Technical Advice Note 15 on Development and Flood Risk which establishes a framework in which flood risk issues can be afforded early and consistent consideration in the planning process, and the Interim Marine Aggregates Dredging Policy which aims to guide future extraction of non-renewable resources to less vulnerable areas in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel, while ensuring that the need for sand and gravel as building materials continues to be met.
  
• additional resources for local planning authority service delivery linked to self-assessment, the Wales Programme for Improvement, and individual local planning authority spending plans.   Monitoring shows that a good start has been made on embedding the Planning: delivering for Wales objectives.  My aim is to ensure that the additional resources, and the income from this month’s increase in planning fees, continues to be used to build on this foundation.
  
• e-Planning is starting to change the way the Planning service is delivered, for example (subject to Assembly approval), it will be possible by January 2005 for people to submit planning applications electronically.
  
• a successful start to the programme of Member Briefing in Wales which has provided support and information for local politicians to help them in their vitally important role in Planning.
  
• a real difference in the awareness and reality of improved design quality through the Design Commission for Wales’ Design Review Panel.
  
• direct and indirect contributions to planning education and training : for example our training event on 16 November on Strategic Environmental Assessment, and work with educational institutions to ensure planning courses are attractive to new entrants to the profession;
  
• simplified Compulsory Purchase procedures thus enabling speedier preparation and consideration of Compulsory Purchase Orders.

The Future

We have  made good progress so far, but there is  much more to be done.    In particular next year I want to:  
- effect smooth transition to the new Local Development Plan system for those local planning authorities choosing to make an early start , as well as those wishing to complete their Unitary Development Plans;
- ensure that sustainable development is integral to Local Development Plan preparation and development control;
- embed cultural change so that Planning regains its place as a forward-looking activity, involving the community (including business) in an effective way.   A key focus will be ensuring good quality plans, decisions, information, support, pre-application advice, and sharing best practice.    
- ensure that the increased resources for Planning continue to bring real improvements to the service as a whole.

Conclusion

We have achieved a good deal in the last year, and I want to continue to build on this progress.

The Assembly Government’s focus on delivery and public service reform is reflected in all that we are seeking to achieve in Planning: delivering for Wales.   Planning in Wales is undergoing a renaissance, and with continuing support from partners I am confident that we will continue to deliver significant improvements in the quality of our planning service.