Plan making process reforms

Although the key underlying principles of the British planning system have remained static since 1947, namely LPAs formulating some sort of plan envisaging policies to manage land use in their areas 15-20 years into the future and then determining applications against these plans and other ‘material considerations’ (Allmendinger, 2011), there have been some concerted efforts to reform the scope of, and process for preparing, plans since the turn of the century. Naturally these process reforms have captured the attention of practitioners and academics alike, as they cut to the heart of planning practice. The most notable reform over the last two decades has been the introduction of the LDF system of Local Plans in England in 2004, which has explicitly been associated with the drive to move British planning practice from a ‘land use’ to a ‘spatial planning’ approach.

On 13 May 2004, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill received royal assent and became law (HMSO, 2004a). The key part of this Act for local authority planners in England was the introduction of a new system of Local Plans, the LDFs, which came into force with the commencement of regulations later in the year on 28 September 2004 (HMSO, 2004b). Keith Hill, then Planning Minister, called the 2004 Act ‘the gestation of an elephant’, and commented that planning was being put ‘back in the driving seat’ (cited in Brindle, 2004). Initial hopes were high, with a Public Service Agreement that all LDFs would be in place within three years. However, as we saw in Chapter One, just 22 core strategies (one component of an LDF) were in place by March 2008 (out of 396 English LPAs, including counties that plan for minerals and waste matters).

Something had clearly gone wrong with this flagship component of New Labour's planning reform agenda, which attempted to radically alter the process through which development plans were created in order to modernise a system seen as outdated and ill equipped to ensure delivery on the ground.