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Review of Scotland's Cities - The Analysis

8.2.3 Community planning in the city-regions

The review team uncovered a degree of uncertainty about the purpose, role and 'fit' of Community Planning. Community Planning is still in its relative infancy, and a number of different approaches have developed. Some local authorities and community planning partnerships have emphasised improving public service delivery, whilst others have emphasised community planning's 'strategic' role and consulted local residents on their wishes for their city or area in the future, although both lie at the heart of community planning partnerships. Guidance is being developed as part of the legislative process of the Local Government Bill and will help to set a framework for Community Planning in the coming months.

The Community Planning Task Force (CPTF) undertook detailed research on existing progress with, and approaches to, community planning in an attempt to get 'under the skin' of community planning throughout Scotland. As part of this research, the state of community planning in each of the five cities was explored. The box below summarises the key findings of the research. ⁷⁵

It is clear that much progress has been made in developing community planning in the cities, but that much remains to be done by both local Partnerships and the Executive. If community planning is to fulfil its potential then it must provide a central, co-ordinating hub to link the various planning processes taking place. In particular it is vital that the relationships between community, land-use and other planning arrangements are clarified and that the co-ordinating role that Community Planning could play at a regional level is developed.

8.2.4 Clarifying the role of community planning at the regional level

The role, purpose and inter-relationships of the plethora of different plans and partnerships that exist within city-regions are imperfectly understood at a range of levels. In particular the role of community planning requires clarification. In this respect the current passage of the Local Government in Scotland Bill through Parliament, and the publication of associated guidance, are a welcome opportunity.

It is also clear that a range of agencies and individuals within our city-regions believe that the Scottish Executive must take a proactive role in clarifying what it expects from the existing range of plans and partnerships, how it intends to improve and rationalise the existing complex arrangements, and how it expects local authorities and their partners in the public, private and voluntary/community sectors to interact with the various planning and partnership mechanisms.

The vast majority of those involved in the review believe that community planning has the potential to provide a central, co-ordinating link between the plethora of existing plans and, furthermore, that it has the potential to do so at both a unitary and a regional level. We agree that this is indeed the case and the Executive could usefully take steps to clarify expectations.

This is not to suggest that community plans as distinct from community planning should be extended from a unitary basis to a regional one. Rather it is evident that there are elements of unitary plans (for example transport and economic development) that clearly have a significant regional dimension, and that increased collaboration between neighbouring partnerships within city-regions to produce these elements of plans would be beneficial.

Elements of the plan produced on a regional basis in such a way could subsequently be fed back into unitary community plans, where they could be developed to reflect local circumstances. In such a way much greater consistency and regional cohesiveness will be encouraged, while plans will remain sensitive to the local dimension. The development of such an approach also places greater emphasis on the links between community and structure planning to ensure consistency in the 'vision' for each city-region.

This approach is consistent with the new role recently outlined for Local Economic Forums ⁷⁶ (LEFs) by the Scottish Executive. Scottish Ministers have tasked the LEFs with developing local economic development strategies, to be consistent with the Executive's enterprise strategy 'A Smart, Successful Scotland', under the banner of community planning.

The aim is to pull together the collective economic development efforts of the enterprise networks, local authorities, tourist boards and the higher and further education sectors. These strategies would then provide the economic development input into the community planning process in each of the areas.

This approach would not result in any change for policy areas, such as housing or area regeneration, where the lead role would continue to reside at unitary authority level, not at the regional level. In this case, the requirement would remain for local authorities to consult with adjoining authorities and to ensure that their strategy dovetails with that of other local authorities and public agencies operating in, for example, the same housing market area.

At the same time as clarifying the central role of community planning, the Executive should also take steps to ensure that its support for the principle of community planning is backed up by action to 'mainstream' it as the key process for implementing new initiatives and policies. The 'Under the Skin' research identified considerable dissatisfaction that, while some parts of the Executive are supporting the operation of CPPs, as a whole the Executive is failing to 'lead by example' and give a corporate commitment to the central importance of community planning as the channel for implementing cross-cutting policies.

There is a danger that community planning could be perceived as the solution to 'everything' for 'everyone'. The Community Planning process is still developing and as such it is crucial that too many expectations are not placed upon it, leading to a lack of focus. Community planning partnerships are still evolving and the CPTF research has highlighted that, while progress is being made, to be truly effective a 'sea change' in attitudes within the key public sector organisations involved will be required. This will undoubtedly take time to bring about.

By simplifying and rationalising relationships at a regional level it should also be easier to make sense of the range of existing partnerships that exist within city-regions. There is a danger that in attempting to rationalise and impose a common structure upon regional partnership arrangements, local circumstances and history are neglected - thereby reducing the effectiveness of those involved and frustrating local ambitions. It is for individual city-regions to rationalise their own processes and networks according to local needs.

8.2.5 Land-use planning

At present the objectives, content, focus and arrangements for the preparation of structure plans for each of the 5 cities vary considerably. In the Glasgow city-region a dedicated team has been established, supported by financial contributions from each of the 8 councils covered by the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Structure Plan, to prepare the plan. The regional Structure Plan team report to a joint committee of councillors. None of the other 3 large city-regions have established a dedicated team to prepare their plan.

Consultees called for greater ambition from structure plans for the city-regions and a move away from a 'consensual' approach that, they felt, avoided tackling some of the key development choices facing our city-regions.

Major changes to the land-use planning system are currently underway. The Scottish Executive announced its intention to undertake a review of strategic planning in November 2000 and launched a consultation paper in June 2001. Over 300 responses to the consultation were received and the Executive's conclusions and response were published in June 2002. ⁷⁷ The proposals of particular relevance to city-region governance include that:

• the current requirement to prepare structure plans for the whole of the country would be removed with 2 tiers of plans (development and local) only being required for the 4 city-regions of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow;
• there would be a statutory requirement for the 4 city-regions to establish (where they do not already exist) a joint committee to oversee the preparation of the strategic development plan for the region and that a dedicated team should be appointed to prepare the plan;
• structure plans should be more focused on the strategic issues facing the region, as well as being action orientated, with a stronger spatial component that sought to resolve some of the key 'choices' surrounding future development within each city-region;
• Ministers will work to a 3 month target for approving city-region structure plans;
• all development plans should contain an action plan (to be updated every 2 years) which sets out the main phases of development, land acquisition and infrastructure projects required to realise the plan's ambitions, to help secure the commitment of other public and private sector bodies with a key implementation role;
• a non-statutory national planning policy document would be prepared setting out how Scotland was likely to develop and change over the next 15-20 years, and how the planning system could help deliver the necessary change. Although not intended to be a 'national plan' it would set out some of the key challenges and development choices facing the country and how the planning system could help deliver sustainable solutions;
• National Planning Policy Guidelines would be renamed Scottish Planning Policies and would be revised to be more concise with a greater strategic policy emphasis.

In essence these proposals seek to modernise the planning system and make it more responsive to the needs of communities and the economy; to make plans for the 4 main city-regions more strategic and focused on action to tackle the key challenges facing each; and to improve the co-ordination between structure/development and local plans in the 4 main cities.

The proposals will go a long way towards addressing some of the key issues identified by the Cities Review. In particular the moves to make development plans more strategic and action orientated, and to streamline the process for their production and approval, will help to ensure that plans are up to date and that they proactively tackle the key development choices facing our cities. The increased regional focus of plans will also help to ensure that the cross-boundary nature of housing, labour, and retail markets and transport networks are reflected.

If the proposed changes to the planning system are to make a real difference, it is also vital that action is taken to resource the planning system adequately, to secure real public involvement in the planning process, and to ensure that development plans and the plans of public agencies are mutually consistent.

8.2.6 Commitment to plans and involvement in planning processes

A range of other problems with the existing network of plans and partnerships were perceived by those involved in the review. Some questioned what they perceive as a lack of co-ordination between the operating plans of a variety of 'regional' public agencies, and the strategic objectives of structure and community plans. For example, many were concerned at the tensions agencies, such as Scottish Enterprise or Communities Scotland, face in balancing their commitments to both national and local priorities. Their plans must reflect national Ministerial priorities, yet they must also be sensitive to local needs. Such tensions are, of course, inevitable, but many consultees argued that, at present, flexibility to reflect local priorities and circumstances in their operating plans is being sacrificed in favour of meeting national objectives (often tied to funding criteria). It will be necessary to manage these tensions to ensure appropriate focus on collective strategic priorities, whilst ensuring adequate scope for local flexibility.

Further concerns were raised about the lack of true community involvement in plans, and the resulting failure to generate 'bottom-up' views on the future of our cities. Future development of the community planning process and initiatives to encourage greater involvement in land-use planning ⁷⁸ will go some way to address these concerns. However, the review team found that the engagement of the private sector in both community and land-use planning is extremely limited and that their potential contribution to formulating a strategic vision for our cities is poorly understood (both by those within and outwith the private sector). It is clear that a new approach is required to the involvement of the private sector in generating an overarching vision for the cities. This will be a key challenge for the Local Economic Forums.

8.3 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BOUNDARIES

Another issue which has significant implications for the successful planning and management of our city-regions, and which produces strong feelings among citizens, agencies and the press, is that of institutional boundaries.

Functional markets (e.g. for housing or labour) drive patterns of demand for services and infrastructure throughout our city-regions and vary over space and time. In turn, the institutional boundaries of the main authorities, agencies and partnerships who manage the planning and delivery of services and infrastructure overlay these functional systems.

As has already been shown, systems and patterns of socio-economic activity are not neatly confined by geographical boundaries and, with the partial exception of Inverness, spillover the neat boundaries that we attempt to draw around our cities. It is impossible to define and set 'perfect' boundaries in the face of dynamic patterns of socio-economic activity, but, once set, administrative boundaries have a material impact upon patterns of service and infrastructure provision, and thereby patterns of activity. However, spillover will happen to a greater or lesser degree depending on the nature of the activity and the boundaries that are set. For example, people's choices about where to live are likely to mean that housing markets spill over the boundaries that are set on them to a greater degree than parents' choices about where to educate their children cross the boundaries of education authorities.

In attempting to make provision for the services and infrastructure required to support economic and social activity, the boundaries that we set for authorities, agencies and partnerships charged with managing the impact of that activity will therefore affect:

• the planning of services & infrastructure;
• the delivery of services & infrastructure;
• the way in which we monitor the effectiveness of service and infrastructure provision.

The unavoidable mismatch of administrative boundaries with patterns of activity means that collaboration/co-operation between authorities, agencies and partnerships will always be necessary to ensure the effective planning, delivery and monitoring of the impact of services and infrastructure.

Despite press speculation about the purpose and (underlying) motives of the Cities Review, the consideration of boundaries was not a major focus of the review team's activities. Nevertheless, the review was concerned to identify whether existing boundaries were 'fit for purpose' and whether they facilitated or frustrated the effective management of service and infrastructure provision. In addition, consultees were free to raise any issues they wished with the review team. As a result certain shortcomings and problems with existing boundaries and cross-boundary co-operation were identified.

8.3.1 Local Authority Boundaries

It is clear from the consultation undertaken that concern exists in some of the cities about the impact of post-reorganisation local authority boundaries on the effectiveness of local governance arrangements and the ability of local authorities (and their partners) to plan effectively. However, it is also evident that little appetite exists at present for a wholesale review of the boundaries of local authorities or other public agencies.

Ministers have made it clear in the White Paper "Renewing Local Democracy: The Next Steps" that they are not planning a review of council boundaries in the foreseeable future. This does not rule out the possibility of a more fundamental review of boundaries in the future. However, the existing early stage of development of community planning and other partnership arrangements, together with the relatively short period of time elapsed since the last re-organisation, suggests a wholesale review of boundaries would be premature at the present time.

Inappropriate boundaries of authorities and agencies can cause difficulties and prevent the effective planning and delivery of services, and limited boundary reviews may be warranted in one or two instances.

One such instance is in and around Dundee, where the city council made strong representations that the dissolution of Tayside Regional Council in 1996 had caused, and would continue to cause, significant financial and administrative difficulties. In particular, they argue that reductions in the area of the old Dundee District Council area, and the removal of several relatively affluent suburbs from the City Council's control are continuing to cause financial hardship. This is because, prior to re-organisation, the regional council had been able to 'cross-subsidise' higher levels of service provision in some areas with higher income across the region as a whole. The loss of areas such as Monifeith and Invergowrie has, they argue, resulted in both a loss of income from higher council tax band areas, and a relative increase in proportion of need, and thus expenditure per head, across the administrative area.

In addition to financial problems, the council also considered that the re-definition of boundaries had caused problems for the efficient planning of service and infrastructure provision. For example, it was claimed that planning of new housing provision had resulted in a series of new, family housing developments being granted planning permission outwith the city boundary. Thereby, the functional suburbs of Dundee are, in part, seen to be adversely influenced by decisions taken in Perth, exacerbating the flight of families over the border into Angus and Perth & Kinross.

Similarly, when parents were given a free choice, children resident just beyond the new north-west boundary of the city, who would previously have been educated at schools within the city, were instead attending schools in Monifeith to the east of the city. This, combined with the city's general loss of population, has meant that several schools are now struggling to retain sufficient pupil numbers and that consequently attempts to improve the educational offering in the city are being frustrated - creating a self-perpetuating cycle of decline.

The effect of the loss of wealthier neighbouring communities on Dundee Council's revenue is however probably negligible, as the relative increase in the proportion of those in need is already accounted for by the local government formula. As noted above, there is no such thing as a 'perfect' boundary, and therefore it is partnership working across Local Authorities which is of key importance. Clearly, the evidence suggests that joint working in terms of strategy development and implementation with Dundee's adjacent Councils is not working as well as it should. It is therefore vital that Perth & Kinross, Angus and City of Dundee Councils make renewed efforts to work in more constructive and collaborative ways. City-region conventions, discussed below, may be one mechanism of creating a shared vision for the Dundee city-region. Renewed efforts to facilitate partnership working do not of course preclude reconsideration of the boundary in future, if this approach proves ineffective.

8.3.2 Public Agency Boundaries

It is not just the misalignment of functional systems and formal local authority boundaries which can lead to difficulties. Executive quangos and agencies spend considerable sums within defined geographic boundaries and this raises three kinds of issues. First, some agencies may simply adopt or be given a local authority as boundary and, as for councils, the functional markets it serves may spread into the city-region. The boundary of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, for instance, is the municipal boundary. The extensive cross-boundary commuting of workers into Glasgow, and indeed significant outward daily flow, rather mocks this administrative geography and may damage policy effectiveness. For example, SEG is now encouraging FE colleges within its area to raise training efforts for construction workers. However the largest college provider of such skills in the local labour market is located not in the SEG area but (ironically because of a previous local government boundary change) in an adjacent LEC area.

The second problem is where agencies have chosen to operate in functional areas. Some agencies have spent much time and effort aligning their boundaries to the functional systems they deal with, and Communities Scotland has boundaries for internal regions that match aggregations of Housing Market Areas. Such agencies will then need to interface with several local authority areas and multiple partnerships (often concerned with the same subject). For example, regional agencies are often involved with all of the Community Planning Partnerships in their area - which in the case of Glasgow city-region means 8 different partnerships. The CPTF research (see earlier) identified considerable concern about the challenge posed to the development of community planning by an absence of coterminous boundaries between authorities and their partners. The problems of resourcing participation in multiple partnerships was also felt to have implications for activity at a sub-unitary level, in effect endangering effective partnership working at a range of spatial scales.

A third set of problems follows. When partnerships meet they may be operating with quite different regions as their background to organisation, networks and resource allocation. Typically the health board, the LEC and Communities Scotland will all have different boundaries from each other. This pattern, in the main based on accidents of history, reflects a failure to give any real significance to the importance of linking government sectoral actions in delivery and this must change.

A possible solution could be to encourage, at the city-region level, the joint production of the 'city-region' elements of community plans, thus bringing not only multiple local authorities, but the regional level of Executive agencies into the process. The regional elements of plans could then inform, and be informed by, individual community plans and feed into structure plans and other regional plans. Elements of plans that might be deemed to have a truly 'regional' dimension include transport and economic development.

The ongoing rationalisation of partnerships (as a result of the activities of CPPs and LEFs) will also help to focus the activities of, and reduce the burden on, regional agencies. However, while there is undoubtedly considerable potential to rationalise the number of existing partnerships, it should be recognised that many exist to serve a specific purpose and that partnership 'purges' should not occur at the expense of efficient planning and management of services.

As Executive agencies and quangos were subject to their normal sequence of reviews their boundaries could, of course, be examined and revised where necessary.

The current geographic responsibilities of the local enterprise companies (LECs) in and around Glasgow pose particular challenges. Unlike the other city-regions, the relevant LECs are poorly matched to labour markets and the major corridors of opportunity. This has created fragmentation and inhibited the LEC network from adopting a strategic, city-region perspective on future challenges and opportunities.

Changing structures may be one solution, but it would entail significant administrative costs, and could distract the key players from delivery change. The Scottish Enterprise Network is encouraging cross-boundary collaboration across the Network on both policy and delivery, an example being the recent introduction of Senior Directors of Operations each with responsibility for a group of 4 LECs. The challenge is whether greater top-down co-ordination and/or joint working between two or more LECs can deliver the required synergies and the greater sense of strategic purpose in economic development that the Glasgow city-region requires.

8.3.3 Strategic leadership for the city-regions

Boundaries also pose problems for the effective provision of strategic leadership for our city-regions. Quite understandably, the first loyalty of many civic leaders is to their electors. Within our city-regions this can cause problems when attempting to resolve some of the long-term, strategic investment challenges facing our cities. Councillors and board members often feel obliged to ensure that their area or community receives the best deal possible from investment decisions. Many review consultees felt that this often prevented them from achieving the 'best' practicable solution for the entire region.

This report has already highlighted the concerns of many that structure plans do not currently tackle difficult choices about future development within our city-regions and the Executive's plans to re-invigorate the development planning process to encourage more explicit consideration of strategic issues. The proposals for the reform of structure planning received widespread support among review consultees but it was felt that more could still be done to further encourage and facilitate the tackling of the key strategic challenges facing our cities.

Many involved in the review, from both the public and private sectors, believed that greater clarity and guidance from the Executive was needed to focus the attention of civic leaders on what they perceived to be the key challenges for the future. It was hoped that the proposed national planning framework would in part help to do this. But many also believed that the Executive needed to be explicit in setting out the key changes it wished to see brought about in our city-regions. However, consultees were also clear that while the Executive had a clear role to play in setting some high-level objectives for the cities, regional and local agencies should be trusted to determine how the required change should be brought about.

8.3.4 Cross-boundary co-operation

Inappropriate boundaries of authorities and agencies are often said to cause difficulties and prevent the effective planning and delivery of services. One such instance is in and around Dundee, where the city council made strong representations that the dissolution of Tayside Regional Council in 1996 had caused, and would continue to cause, significant financial and administrative difficulties.

In particular, they argue that reductions in the area of the old Dundee District Council area, and the removal of several relatively affluent suburbs from the City Council's control are continuing to cause financial hardship. This is because, prior to re-organisation, the regional council had been able to 'cross-subsidise' higher levels of service provision in some areas with higher income across the region as a whole. The loss of areas such as Monifeith and Invergowrie has, they argue, resulted in both a loss of income from higher council tax band areas, and a relative increase in proportion of need, and thus expenditure per head, across the administrative area.

In addition to financial problems, the council also considered that the re-definition of boundaries had caused problems for the efficient planning of service and infrastructure provision. For example, it is claimed that planning of new housing provision had resulted in a series of new, family housing developments being granted planning permission outwith the city boundary. Thereby, the functional suburbs of Dundee are, in part, seen to be adversely influenced by decisions taken in Perth, exacerbating the move of families over the border into Angus and Perth & Kinross.

The effect of the loss of wealthier neighbouring communities on Dundee Council's revenue is however probably negligible, as the relative increase in the proportion of those in need is already accounted for by the local government formula. As noted above, there is no such thing as a 'perfect' boundary, and therefore it is partnership working across Local Authorities which is of key importance. Clearly, the evidence suggests that joint working in terms of strategy development and implementation with Dundee's adjacent Councils is not working as well as it should. It is therefore vital that Perth & Kinross, Angus and City of Dundee Councils, make renewed efforts to work in more constructive and collaborative ways. Renewed efforts to facilitate partnership working do not of course preclude reconsideration of the boundary in future, if this approach proves ineffective.

8.3.5 Improving performance monitoring for the city-regions

If local authorities and their partners are to plan effectively for their city-region then it is imperative that strategic decisions about service improvement and investment in infrastructure are well informed by comprehensive information about how the region as a whole, and its constituent parts, are performing. A great deal of information, both quantitative and qualitative, is currently being collected. However, it is not clear that information is being collated and disseminated effectively to decision-makers to provide them with an overall view of how their areas are performing.

Those involved in the review seminar on city-region governance were clear that, although a great deal of information was being collected by a host of different agencies, no one organisation had a remit for co-ordinating the collection and analysis of data on how city-regions were performing. Individual CPPs are beginning to make progress on data sharing and co-ordinating monitoring activities at a local authority level, and in some instances are beginning to introduce overarching 'quality of life' indicators to provide a benchmark of how they are performing. For example, the Dundee Partnership has recently developed a set of headline indicators and targets for use within its monitoring framework to chart the progress of Dundee City in the key fields of employment, retailing, population and tourism.

However, data sharing and the co-ordination of analytical services are not yet taking place at a regional level - primarily because no forum or incentives to do so exist. This has meant that local authorities and public agencies, such as Scottish Enterprise, health authorities and Communities Scotland, all collect information (sometimes in duplicate) about the relative 'well-being' of the functional and geographical areas with which they are concerned. Similarly no one organisation is charged with proactively co-ordinating the collection and analysis of data in order that cities and their surrounding regions can benchmark themselves against each other and against their main rivals.

This is obviously wasteful and in some instances may prevent city-regions from identifying areas where particular opportunities or weaknesses exist - and where proactive investment in services and/or infrastructure may reap longer-term dividends. The review team would therefore encourage authorities and public agencies in each of the cities to give thought to how they might pool their analytical services to create city-region 'laboratories' which can provide a more structured framework for monitoring performance. Funding from the 'Modernising Government' scheme might usefully be used to help rationalise monitoring arrangements and improve data sharing.

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