As a long-time collector of successive promises by politicians to reform the planning system – and the metaphors and alliteration used to that end – I was excited to see the Labour Party’s 28 March 2024 document Power and Partnership: Labour’s Plan to Power-Up Britain, published ahead of the 2 May 2024 local elections.
PUB gives the clearest set of indications yet as to what a future (possibly near future) Labour government’s priorities will be for planning, development and local government. It’s bold and you need to read it. I’ll just now give you some selective highlights. (I’ve emboldened the boldest commitments, towards the end of this post).
From the foreword by Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner:
“Growth in every corner of the country, so that every town, village and city has a role to play, and can reap the rewards of a decade of national renewal.”
From an initial section headed “the challenge we face”:
“Despite hoarding the levers of power, our centre remains passive in the face of huge national challenges…Our sclerotic planning system has left England unable to build the infrastructure and homes it needs; and endless Conservative chaos has undermined certainty and investment across the country.”
“We are currently not able to effectively integrate local, regional and national transport systems. Decisions on housing developments or commercial space chop and change at a moment’s notice. And the lack of a consistent economic strategy has undermined business confidence and investment.”
From a section headed “empowering communities to power up Britain”:
“Local and sub- regional decision- makers often possess better information about their local economies, and more developed capacity for working with local businesses and institutions. By giving local leaders a greater say, we can focus policies at the scale at which people live and work and at which businesses specialise and form economic clusters.
We also should not make policy on a scale which is so local that it does not reflect people ’s working, commuting and social patterns – people often cross administrative borders every day as they go to work or head into their town centre. OECD research indicates that administrative fragmentation at a local level holds productivity back.
By holding strategic decision- making over housing policy at a local authority level, for example, we are failing to seize the opportunity to build more homes in places where people need them to live and work.
We believe new combined authorities or devolution settlements should be tailored to functional economic areas. This is central to the economic promise of taking back control and will be necessary for local leaders to effectively deploy skills, transport, housing and other labour market policies and unlock new long- term , integrated funding settlements. By deepening devolution to city regions, we will make sure that the towns and cities that built the foundations of modern Britain are given the tools they need to thrive in the modern service and high- value manufacturing economy.
We will also reap the benefits of combining scale with local knowledge, joining up the power of an active state with the information available to local leaders. We will work to build up capacity in local and sub- regional government and we will deliver a new institutional framework for partnership working and joined- up decision- making.”
From a section entitled “an active centre to power up Britain”:
“Labour’s plan for growth includes action at a national scale to address the failures outlined in this document. This includes a plan to steam ahead in the industries of the future, with a modern UK industrial strategy supported by tailored sector strategies and, in England, Local Growth Plans; strategic public investment via our National Wealth Fund across the United Kingdom ; wholesale reform to England’s system of planning for housing and infrastructure…
Just as our plan will require local leaders to be active players, it will require a greater level of strategy and direction from national government. It will involve the reintroduction of mandatory local housing targets to get Britain building again…”
A section entitled “English devolution” starts with three bullet points:
- Turbocharge mayors with access to new powers over transport, skills, housing, planning, employment support and energy, supported by long- term integrated funding settlements.
- Work to expand devolution further and faster, with local authorities coming together to take on new powers to boost their economies.
- Roll out new Local Growth Plans to towns and cities take advantage of their economic potential and foster clusters of well- paid jobs.
“A Labour government will ask all councils outside of an existing or agreed combined authority or county devolution deal to begin preparatory work to join together on sensible economic geographies and take on a new suite of powers through our enhanced devolution framework to benefit their residents. We will provide them with support and guidance to do so through the leadership of the Secretary of State and the expertise of the Department.“
“We will create a statutory obligation on all combined authorities and counties with devolution deals to develop a Local Growth Plan based on those functional economic geographies which identifies economic clusters and sets out their plans to build on their local advantages, the key binding constraints of their local economies and how they will use the powers devolved from central government to support local growth.”
Labour will “provide longer- term funding settlements for councils, giving them the certainty they need to deliver better value for money”.
From a section entitled “high streets”, there is a commitment to “give communities the power to revamp empty shops, pubs and community spaces with a strong new Community Right to Buy”
A section headed “building homes” starts with three bullet points:
- Build 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament, unleashing growth and putting more money into people’s pockets.
- Deliver the biggest boost of social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, embedding security and stability in our economy.
- Empower metro mayors to deliver new housing projects linked up to the jobs and infrastructure needed to support regional growth.
“Labour will build 1.5 million high quality homes in the right places, with new towns, urban extensions and smaller developments – and they will be connected to infrastructure and built strategically as part of sub-regional strategies from mayors and combined authorities. This will increase the ‘effective size’ of our major cities and high- potential towns so that they can reap the benefits of scale and agglomeration needed to develop and cement their labour market clusters and comparative strengths.
Our approach combines robust national policy frameworks, including targets for housing delivery, with measures to support local leaders delivering plans for meeting those targets and ensuring homes are built in the right place. We want to give local leaders a say over ‘how’ new homes are delivered, whilst being robust in national policy about ‘if’ areas build the homes they need.”
Labour will deliver:
“• The biggest boost in affordable homes for a generation – with social and council housing at the core of Labour’s plan for secure homes.
• A housing recovery plan, a blitz of planning reform to quickly and materially boost house building , delivered in our first weeks and months in office .
• The next generation of new towns , garden cities and large sites, new communities with beautiful homes, green spaces, reliable transport and bustling high streets
• New powers to unleash mayors including a package of devolution to mayors, handing them stronger powers over planning and departmental style settlements for housing
• ‘Planning passports ’ for urban brownfield delivery, a tough package of planning reform to fast track approvals and delivery of high density housing on urban brownfield sites
• 300 new planning officers across the country, paid for by raising the stamp duty surcharge on non- UK residents, to improve public sector capacity to expedite planning decisions.”
Fasten your seatbelts.
Simon Ricketts, 13 April 2024
Personal views, et cetera
SIMONICITY 