06 - 08 - 2020
By Gerry Cassidy, Partner, Planning.
Launched in August 2020, The Government’s ‘Planning for the Future’ consultation and white paper propose reforms to the UK planning system, seeking to streamline and modernise the planning process. BPTW’s Planning Partner, Gerry Cassidy, provides his commentary on the proposals.
It remains to be seen how these proposals tie into the localism agenda. For a White Paper it seems to leave unanswered some fundamental questions about realistic implementation. In removing opportunities for the parochial nimbyist to frustrate desperately needed housing delivery the question does still arise ‘who will guard the guards themselves?’ Planning departments have experienced years of chronic underfunding, and the planning profession has scrabbled to react to one policy initiative after another. We must make sure the decision makers, whoever they are, have sufficient resource and the brightest minds to make planning judgements with full democratic transparency.
With government insisting that design and quality are central to these plans it is great to see our recent Housing Design Award winning regeneration project at Rochester Riverside for Countryside and The Hyde Group featured in the introductory page to the White Paper. You can read the ‘Planning for the Future’ paper here.
