I read Alex Morton’s article with dismay at his blunt assertion, as a recent Downing Street insider, that neighbourhood plans remain absolutely central to the Conservative policy of “responsible localism” and that neither Number 10 nor the Conservative Party will accept a return to subregional planning.
Morton is right that neighbourhood planning, which has attracted considerable popular engagement, is a democratic ideal.
He is right that we need more housing and that it should be better designed, bring more local benefits and be more affordable.
But he is wrong to believe that narrow localism and popular engagement can achieve these benefits by themselves. Awarding primacy to neighbourhood planning will endanger these other aims.
To achieve enough housing and employment development, of the right quality, with the best public amenities, we need a significant dose of top-down, subregional planning to create the overall framework in which neighbourhood plans and district plans belong. Why? Because neighbourhoods do not exist in isolation.
No man is an island. Few districts and no parishes are big enough to address the full needs of their residents.
Numbers tell the story. There are more than 10,000 parish and town councils in England compared with 350 local planning authorities (27 county, 210 district and 125 unitary).
Whereas district and unitary authorities typically represent 50-250,000 people, parishes frequently represent 500-1,000 - a number that is often too small to support its own primary school or village shop.
People, whether young or old, living alone or in families, almost all seek benefits from an area far wider than a parish.
Recognising how people travel between parishes, towns, districts and counties in search of benefits makes it clear how wide ‘local’ is in practice.
Defining ‘local’
The Localism Act did not define ‘local’. We refer to the pub at the end of the road as ‘our local’. We might say we work locally, meaning within a few miles. We might refer to a shopping centre, theatre or hospital 10-15 miles away as local and even an airport 50 miles away as our local airport. The government created subregional local enterprise partnerships because of the important contribution of subregions.
Localism matters, but for significant projects it must be implemented at population (and governance) levels above that of neighbourhood and district plans. I am involved in promoting a new town that came to my attention after it was identified in a study commissioned by three districts that make up the north-west Sussex housing area.
The land also lies in the Gatwick Diamond economic area, which includes those three districts plus four neighbours in Surrey. It also lies within the 14 councils that make up the Coast to Capital local economic partnership.
Finally it lies within the 24 Surrey and Sussex councils jointly seeking devolution. This new town is an example of the type of project that would benefit the whole hierarchy that makes a subregion, but would not naturally be popular in the immediate local area.
In four years, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the ‘duty to co-operate’ between local authorities - Morton’s “iron fist in a velvet glove” - have not delivered responsible localism or even an adopted local plan for Mid Sussex.
Brighton considered that Mid Sussex had failed in its duty to co-operate in producing a Deposit Draft Local Plan, which failed to address Brighton’s needs. The inspector agreed and cancelled Mid Sussex’s Local Plan Inquiry on day one - nearly three years ago. The local plan is yet to restart. So far the iron fist of the NPPF has just delayed proper planning.
Subregional overview
Without some subregional overview there is only confusion, division, delay and the avoidance of responsibility. Local councillors need subregional planning to facilitate the proactive decisions they should be taking for the greater good. Otherwise electoral politics inevitably leads them to minimise development in their backyard.
If the government believes Britain will benefit from staying in a market of 500 million people, it follows that local planning should recognise the importance of the subregion to bringing benefits to neighbourhoods.
Peter Freeman is co-founder of Argent
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