That’s what the Conservative Party called their proposals for a new planning system in England before the election. Apparently it’s a concept from the software industry, which aims to make computer programming open to all in a highly flexible and adaptable way. We still struggle to understand how that applies to the planning system, but it is clear that their proposals, which are being taken forward by the Coalition Government, could be the most ambitious and radical change to the planning system since it all started in 1947.
You may have seen some announcements in the media already, such as on ‘garden grabbing’, the Community Right to Build and the withdrawal of all regional spatial strategies in England. The meat of the proposals is still to come, however, in the Localism Bill to be published this autumn, and a National Planning Framework for England.
The changes are likely to have big implications for the way we save special places and create new ones; some good, some bad.
We’ll keep you informed of proposals as they emerge, tell you what we think and look for your support when we need a voice for nature in debates over the future of the planning system. We have refreshed the planning policy pages of our website where you can dig in to more detail.
Let’s start with some good news. Remember the Infrastructure Planning Commission? We campaigned against it on the grounds that we believe that decisions on the country’s major infrastructure need to be made by ministers who are accountable to Parliament and to electors. At the time, it seemed like we lost that argument. But now, with a change of Government, it looks almost certain that the IPC will be abolished – or at least merged with the Planning Inspectorate – and decisions will stay with the Secretary of State.
We’ll feature more reform proposals over the next few weeks, but if you’d like some technical detail on our initial views, see this briefing.