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04: Planning in a Modern, Devolved Scotland

The Scottish Executive's top priority is promoting sustainable economic growth. Quite simply, planning is at the heart of achieving that - growth requires development, and the role of planning is to ensure that this development is encouraged and managed in a sustainable way.

Planning also underpins our other high level priorities - stronger, safer communities; delivering excellent public services; and a more democratic, confident Scotland. Investment in new schools and hospitals, providing water and sewerage facilities, waste installations to ensure the environmental impact is minimised, regeneration of deprived areas, and providing affordable housing where it is needed -all of these depend on the planning system.

The way in which planning balances the various interests of development, the environment and social justice will determine how Scotland will look in the future. It is a key tool in creating the dynamic, forward-looking, confident and sustainable Scotland to which we all aspire.

We have consistently said that our objectives for modernising planning are to make the system more efficient and to give local people better opportunities to influence the decisions that affect them. This is what our modernisation of the planning system will deliver - a fairer, more balanced system.

A new Planning Bill will be the first modernisation of the planning system through primary legislation since devolution. It will be the culmination of a series of consultations and discussions with stakeholders which started in 1999. The detail of that process is set out in the annotated bibliography at the end of this White Paper ( Appendix 1).

The commitment to modernisation stemmed from a common perception - reinforced by the Scottish Executive's consultations and research - that the planning system is not serving Scotland well. Many users of the system have complained that it is over-bureaucratic, slow to respond to commercial and economic needs and unpredictable in its outcomes. Community and voluntary groups, and the general public, often see the planning system as complex, intimidating, unresponsive to environmental or social concerns and lacking in transparency. Local and central government bodies are concerned that their key political objectives such as affordable housing, public infrastructure and waste management are often frustrated by the planning system.

Although some of these criticisms may have been overstated, there are still some clear indicators of failings in the system. 70% of local plans are more than 5 years old and around 20% over 15 years old. This has led to greater uncertainty for both developers and local people. Inquiries are becoming more complex and thus slower to conclude. Over time, the planning system has become characterised as reactive and bureaucratic, rather than a positive and dynamic process to coordinate and deliver spatial change.

In addition, a number of controversial planning decisions have fuelled the impression that the planning system is out of touch with the local people it is supposed to serve. Thus a perception has grown that planning has failed certain communities and subjected them to intrusive developments.

Our Partnership Agreement (2003) commits the Executive to 'improve the planning system to strengthen the involvement of local communities, speed up decisions, reflect local views better and allow quicker investment decisions'.

Our aim in modernising planning is to facilitate rather than obstruct high quality appropriate development; protect our heritage and environment and provide the basis for sustainable economic growth. Many of the proposals set out here centre on supporting planning authorities in producing up-to-date, relevant development plans which:

• provide a clear vision of how our cities, towns and countryside areas should develop;
• involve all interests - local people, voluntary organisations, developers, statutory bodies - in their preparation;
• undergo Strategic Environmental Assessment, so that issues of sustainability are fully integrated into the process from the outset;

• are the core document against which applications are assessed for determination.

Many of these proposals have been the subject of extensive consultation and aim at making the existing system work better. However, we also felt that there was scope to reshape the system more fundamentally, looking in particular at whether it could deal with different types of demands in different ways, as well as establishing the right balance of central and local decision making. We concluded that we could, indeed should, take this opportunity to reshape the underlying structure and responsibilities in planning to make it fit for purpose. Our ultimate aim is to improve the outcomes of the planning process, delivering development that is high quality and sustainable.

In light of this, we would therefore welcome comments over the next 3 months on the content of this White Paper. These can be made by writing to the address at the end of this document.

An efficient and effective planning system will be an invaluable asset for Scotland. Planning is fundamentally about land use and promoting quality development in cities, towns and rural areas. It can help us plan the spatial development of Scotland in the context of a globalised economy, and plan for the essential infrastructure we need. However, it can also assist in the ability of central and local government to deliver its objectives. Creating excellent public services requires investment in infrastructure and buildings. Schools, hospitals and affordable housing all require planning permission, as do waste management facilities, some renewable energy installations and infrastructure for transport. Regeneration of communities requires investment in infrastructure and local amenities. Without the realisation of developments on the ground, national or local commitments on investment would remain empty promises.

More detail of how planning can assist in delivery of public policy is set out in Appendix 2.

The package of proposals set out in this White Paper is underpinned by our determination to create a modern planning system that is:

• fit for purpose: we want the planning system to have a clearer sense of priorities, and to address different issues in different ways. In so doing, it will be better able to deliver the sustainable growth we need;
• efficient: we want up-to-date development plans to be at the heart of an efficient system that provides certainty for users and local people. Planning must not be seen as an obstacle to development, but as a mechanism for delivering high quality outcomes;
• inclusive: we want local people to be more involved in the decisions that shape the development of their communities. Where local people's views have not been taken into account, development should not happen;

• sustainable: we want development to contribute to economic growth that is sustainable. Planning in the twenty-first century will be an agent for delivering sustainable development and environmental justice.

4.3.1 Fitness for Purpose

The planning system has become too complex. It should be able to respond better to the different demands placed upon it. It is common sense that applications for significant developments, representing high levels of investment and employment, should be dealt with in a different way to applications for minor extensions to existing buildings. Consequently, we propose new procedures for dealing with applications for developments in the following categories: national developments; major developments; local developments; and minor developments (including proposals for household improvements).

A planning system that is fit for purpose will ensure:

• a clearer sense of what the system is for: guiding development that is in the long term public interest;
• decision making, including appeals, taking place at the appropriate level;
• targeted measures to promote the best method of involving local people at each level;
• a better match of resources to priorities: local authorities will be able to give priority to plan-making and to processing the most significant developments, while removing a layer of bureaucracy from many householder and other minor developments; and
• assessment of the environmental impact of projects, programmes and strategies at all levels.

4.3.2 Improving Efficiency

The Partnership Agreement pledges to improve the efficiency of the planning system. Greater efficiency is primarily needed to ensure that development plans are relevant and up-to-date. Development plans are at the heart of Scotland's planning system and set out appropriate locations for future development, areas which should receive special protection, and other essential proposals. The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 requires planning applications to be determined in accordance with the development plan - unless material considerations indicate otherwise - this is called a plan-led system. Up-to-date development plans are therefore essential to make a plan-led system work: where there is a significantly out-of-date development plan, determination of planning applications is more difficult, unpredictable and potentially contentious. The advantage of a plan-led system is that all the different strategies and programmes can be assessed for their cumulative impact on an area and the views of all interested parties considered.

Efficiency is also required to give applicants for planning permission and local people certainty and predictability. We need this to ensure that potential investors know they can plan with confidence in Scotland; to allow local people to know exactly when key decisions which affect them are to be made, and how they can influence them; and to ensure that all users of the system are getting value for money.

Development Control or Development Management?

The process of determining individual applications for planning permission has generally been known until now as Development Control. This White Paper proposes a new approach to planning in which the underlying objective should be to promote sustainable and high quality new development, and to manage the development process with this end in mind. The primary role of planning should not be to stop development happening - it should be to foster the right development in the right places. In keeping with this new approach and the new attitudes that will be required to deliver it successfully, we shall in future use the term 'Development Management', and encourage its adoption throughout the planning system.

4.3.3 Widening Inclusion

As well as being more efficient, a modern, fair and balanced planning system must give local people better opportunities to influence the decisions that affect them and their communities.

We need to restore confidence in the planning system, and ensure that decisions are taken in the public interest. We see the key to achieving this as focusing public involvement in planning at the front end of the process; development plans will be at the heart of decision-making and we must ensure that local people have real opportunities to make their views known as they are produced. In the future, development plans will be prepared in a way that involves local people more effectively and ensures environmental concerns are taken into account. Once in place, and having taken account of these views, development plans will be the key to determining how applications are decided.

The proposals set out in this White Paper will promote more public engagement at all levels in the planning system, recognising in particular the right to better information, more certainty that people's views will be taken into account, more transparency and fairness and more equality. The planning process must be both an instrument for creating a fair and socially just Scotland and an example of inclusive, accessible and credible public policy making.

4.3.4 Promoting Sustainable Development

In a modern and environmentally responsible Scotland the environment and sustainable development must be at the heart of the planning system.

All the proposals set out here take account of the requirements of environmental legislation, including the introduction of Strategic Environmental Assessments in the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Bill currently before Parliament. This allows for consideration of the full range of environmental impacts of all plans and programmes during their development, allowing them to be taken into account in the final decisions that are made.

A main aim of our reforms will be to reinforce the primacy of development plans. The way in which plans will be prepared and implemented will mean environmental considerations will be given the weight they deserve. As noted above, plans will undergo Strategic Environmental Assessment; this will be the means for planning authorities to ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into all policies. There will be better opportunities for local and environmental interests to contribute to the preparation of development plans. Our reforms will also ensure that any proposal that departs from the development plan is subject to greater scrutiny and scope for challenge.

It is also important to recognise the role of the planning system in considering the environmental effects associated with individual planning applications. Again, the planning system will accord the appropriate level of environmental scrutiny to all applications, including requiring Environmental Impact Assessments to be carried out in accordance with the relevant Regulations. We have also made it clear that a Transport Assessment is required for certain developments, with the outline of a Green Travel Plan to be considered as negotiations continue on these applications.

In addition, the National Planning Framework will become a vital tool in facilitating the delivery of the investment we need to meet many of our environmental policy targets: for example, on transport, waste management or renewable energy.

A number of our reforms also aim to ensure that communities are provided with accessible information and the opportunities to participate in decision-making. These reforms are intended to give local people greater control over the environments in which they live, and are a key element in fostering environmental justice.

Finally, the Executive has joined the UK Government, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Office in signing up to a UK Strategic Framework for Sustainable Development, committing us to work together towards a shared purpose, principles and priorities. The Framework was launched by the First Minister in Edinburgh on 7 March 2005 and the Executive will develop a new Scottish sustainable development strategy by the autumn, setting out how this will be put into practice.

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