Integrated and strategic planning

Trudi Elliott

The Royal Town Planning Institute, UK

Introduction

• Who are we?• What is ESPON and ESPON – Interstrat?• The national planning policy landscape• How can ESPON – Interstrat get involved?

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Who are we?The voice of the planning profession, with almost 23,000 members worldwide.

What do we do?The RTPI exists “to promote the art and science of town planning for the public benefit”.

1. Supporting members – news, education, lifelong learning;2. Raising standards – Assessment of Professional Competence,

celebrating and disseminating good practice;3. Shaping policy – building relationships with all political parties,

responding to government consultations, lobbying on specific planning issues;

4. Developing knowledge – training the next generation ofplanners, networks and associations, research and policy;

5. Empowering communities – Planning Aid – free independentand professional planning advice to communities provided by1,200 volunteers; it helped 38,000 individuals and 1,000organisations use the planning system;

Our work falls into five key areas:

What is ESPON?

• European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion.

• Research that is jointly funded by 31 European countries and the European Regional Development Fund.

• ESPON 2006 and 2013.

Where does ESPON fit in?

Cohesion Reportsand Cohesion Policy

Territorial Agenda

National / regionalStrategies

ESPON

Key ESPON messages for practitioners

• Use local strengths to drive economic recovery and sustainable development;

• Capture the opportunities for agglomeration economies offered by urban centres;

• Promote policies that deliver a win-win in urban-rural relations;• Foster and support rural business networks;• Meet business needs (e.g. communication infrastructure,

supply of skilled and highly skilled labour etc.)• Decisiveness and speed of public planning processes are

important to businesses;• Ensure that potential spatial impacts and synergies are

factored into policy making;

What is ESPON-Interstrat?

• A transnational project of 9 EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the UK (lead partner);

• Funded by the ERDF and 31 European countries; • Budget: approx. €882,000.

Main aims: • to encourage and facilitate the use of ESPON findings in the

creation of integrated territorial development strategies (or strategic spatial development plans in the UK);

• to develop and apply a common approach to knowledge transfer between practitioners, policy-makers and researchers;

• to facilitate transnational exchanges of good practice and ESPON concepts and data;

The UK’s first ESPON-Interstrat workshop

The National Planning Policy landscape

Political and economic context in the UK

– Coalition government since May 2010;– Strong fiscal consolidation - Government’s spending review,

October 2010;– 19% cuts (on average) to departmental budgets; – Budget deficit @ 11.1% of GDP (£163 billion);– Current growth figures: GDP @ 0.5%; inflation @ 4.5%;

Direct impact on planning:– the abolition of Regional Development Agencies and the

Regional Spatial Strategies; – Localism Bill – largest piece of legislation going through the

Parliament;– much stronger role for local authorities and neighbourhoods;

Challenges to planning in the UK

We need to:

- Align the localism agenda with national objectives to support economic growth;

- Promote cooperation between the public and private sectors;

- Ensure that the planning system continues to act as a driver for growth; not a barrier to growth;

- Make sure that housing supply meets housing demand;

The National Planning Policy Framework (I)

• England is unique in the UK in lacking any clear expression of a vision for its future spatial development, whereas all the devolved administrations have some form of such a vision. • Despite an extensive collection of PPGs (Planning Policy Guidance), Planning Policy Statement (PPSs), National Policy Statements (NPSs), circulars etc.:

– Scotland has a National Planning Framework, updated in June 2009 (currently under review);

– Wales has spatial Plan, updated in July 2008; – Northern Ireland has a Regional Development Strategy

which is currently being reviewed.

The National Planning Policy Framework (II)

• The NPPF will consolidate planning policy statements, circulars and guidance documents into a singe policy document.

• The NPPF will provide accessible and clear policy guidance for the preparation of local and neighbourhood plans, and development management decisions.

• Act as a mechanism for delivering Government objectives where relevant to do so.

• Be localist in its approach.• Provide a more streamlined and less bureaucratic national policy

framework.

• A key component of the NPPF is that it is expected to contain a presumption in favour of sustainable development.

Planning at the heart of solutions

Planning is at the heart of the localism agenda.

Planning is central to:• enabling communities to develop their vision for the future of their area; • providing the means for areas and the nation to decide on priorities for investment, and • tackling the challenges of sustainable economic growth, social inequity and climate change. Strategic planning – larger than local:• strategic planning needs to be strengthened to ensure continuity between the neighbourhood, local and national planning and to ensure crucial sustainability.

What can ESPON offer to UK evidence base?

reports

Scenarios

ConceptsMethods

Typologies

Benchmarking & data

Targeted analysis

Indicators

Warning – ESPON can change your outlook

ESPON lets you see things differently.

I blame ESPON’s idea of

“The New Rural

Economy”

No: it was their

climate change project

“New urban-rural

relations” they call

it.

Does pink suit me?

To find out more:

• Contact us at:

– www.rtpi.org.uk– + 44 (0)20 7929 9494 (Switchboard)– research@rtpi.org.uk

ESPON: www.espon.org.ukESPON-Interstrat: www.espon-interstrat.eu