Places, People and Planning - Thinkpiece Making an Infrastructure First Approach a Reality

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1 Places, People and Planning - Thinkpiece Making an Infrastructure First Approach a Reality Stefano Smith, Duncan Smart & Catherine Elliot on behalf of RTPI Scotland March 2017 The review of the planning system is an opportunity to effect real, positive change to the planning system. RTPI Scotland wants to see changes that make it easier for planners to maximise their contribution to building a more sustainable and successful Scotland. Working groups of RTPI Scotland members have prepared a series of thinkpieces that explore implementable changes to the planning system in detail. Each of these thinkpieces has been prepared with the intention of supporting the development of a system that is: a corporate and collaborative service that supports and influences investment and policy across local and national government a frontloaded and proactive system to allow for community and stakeholder engagement and agreement on the priorities for an area and who is going to take them forward able to deliver development by ensuring the vision for an area is viable and resourced recognised as a valuable way of providing solutions to complex issues, and resourced to fulfil this task These are RTPI Scotland s ambitions for the planning system, and we believe that they are largely shared by the Scottish Government. The proposals contained in the thinkpieces are intended to be workable, fitting within context and constraints, and complementing the proposals made by the Scottish Government in the consultation paper Places, People and Planning. This thinkpiece considers how an infrastructure first approach to planning can be realised, especially given the resource constraints currently in place in the public and private sectors.

2 Introduction This thinkpiece outlines proposals from RTPI Scotland to deliver an infrastructure first approach to planning, as called for within both Empowering Planning to deliver great places, the report of the Independent Review of the Scottish Planning System, and the Scottish Government s Places, People and Planning Consultation Paper. The proposals set out below have been developed by a working group of RTPI Scotland members, informed by consultations including a workshop held with RTPI members in Perth on 15 February Infrastructure, in its many forms, provides the essential services required to enable a range of human activities and land uses, including good quality housing and employment. Infrastructure is also required to implement sustainable development and address global challenges including climate change. At the same time, infrastructure shapes socio-economic activities across city-regions and beyond, impacts on local communities and affects built and natural environments. To succeed in achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth, spatial planning therefore needs to adopt an integrated approach to infrastructure planning, co-ordination and delivery, with planning professionals at the heart of infrastructure decisions. This would make best use of the co-ordinating and spatial skillsets of planners, as well as ensuring that infrastructure directly supports the implementation of planning strategies to deliver significant new housing, unlock economic development and address environmental challenges. This Infrastructure First approach would involve changes in governance, funding and delivery, which in recent decades has largely undertaken on a fragmented sectoral basis, often with limited co-ordination or integration with spatial planning. Currently, Scottish Government prepares the Scottish Infrastructure Investment Plan, first published in 2011 and updated in This provides a strategic approach to infrastructure investment over five year cycles. The 2016 plan sets out long term strategic infrastructure priorities up to 2021 and beyond. The UK Government has set up a National Infrastructure Commission. The Commission s brief is to determine Britain s infrastructure priorities at the start of each five year UK Parliament, however there are concerns that it will not meet regularly enough to make a difference. There is also a lack of clarity about the scope of the Commission; it is a UK body but its relationship with the devolved governments is not well understood. In Scotland, the strategic approach has long been followed and is now reinforced, backed by engagement across the whole of central government. There is evidence of new thinking designed to maximise the ability to respond to current issues. For example, there is reference to a new, holistic approach which takes into account the wider benefits of investment in assessing value, which is welcome. The intention of the Scottish Government s planning review is clearly to join up the planning process with the delivery of the necessary infrastructure. However, RTPI Scotland considers that the current proposals, particularly with regard the delivery body, needs to be more ambitious to be effective. An Infrastructure First Approach to Planning Given the fundamental importance of infrastructure to spatial planning, RTPI Scotland fully endorses the overarching proposal to establish an Infrastructure First approach to planning in Scotland. However, the measures to achieve this need to be carefully considered, to avoid imposing additional costs without actually improving outcomes. Empowering Planning to Deliver Great Places identified key principles which should underpin an Infrastructure First approach to planning, including 2 a corporate approach to infrastructure delivery should be established, with planning at its heart; planning should regain confidence in infrastructure delivery and should proactively manage infrastructure investment; and, new funding sources including a national fund and levy should be introduced.

3 RTPI Scotland sees no reason to depart from these principles and believes they should be implemented. Proposal for change RTPI Scotland believes that whilst current proposals within the Scottish Government s People, Places and Planning Consultation Paper are a step in the right direction, particularly with respect to the funding of strategic infrastructure through a levy, they are not sufficiently ambitious to deliver an effective Infrastructure First approach to planning. In particular, current proposals do not provide suitable mechanisms to assess infrastructure needs and address these through the planning system or resolve market failures in the funding of some infrastructure projects. RTPI Scotland has identified the following proposals which would help to establish an efficient and effective Infrastructure First approach to planning: Proposal 1: Establish a national mechanism, including statutory powers and duties, to lead infrastructure planning for Scotland A new forward looking and statutory mechanism is needed to maintain a strategic, spatial overview of infrastructure needs and of how infrastructure investment can best support sustainable development. The current proposal to establish a non-statutory national infrastructure and development delivery group could be embedded within this mechanism to focus on delivery issues, but overall the mechanism needs to have a more ambitious and fundamentally spatial remit. RTPI Scotland believes that the primary role of a new national infrastructure planning mechanism should be to maintain an overview of the strategic business case for front funding and delivering major infrastructure projects, based on regular (e.g. five yearly) assessments of national infrastructure needs and strategic business case reviews. National infrastructure assessments should cover all key infrastructure sectors including transport, education, health, energy efficiency, low carbon, digital connectivity, waste & water, rural economies and communities (similar areas of focus as the Scottish Infrastructure Investment Plan). The outcomes of national infrastructure assessments should be costed and reflected in Development Plans, which should take forward infrastructure delivery proposals. The new national mechanism should also have statutory responsibilities to co-ordinate national infrastructure planning and policy activities. This should include the development of a framework for an infrastructure levy, which should then be applied at regional levels to fund strategic infrastructure projects. This proposed mechanism could take the form of a National Infrastructure Unit (NIU) or Taskforce, hosted within the Planning & Architecture Division of the Scottish Government but with cross-governmental responsibilities and accountable to the Scottish Ministers. This would ensure that infrastructure planning and co-ordination is integrated with spatial planning, conducted holistically and undertaken on a statutory basis. RTPI Scotland considers that any new national level governance mechanism needs to be established on a statutory footing to guarantee buy-in from infrastructure providers, planning authorities and other relevant stakeholders. The NIU or Taskforce would have responsibility for the Infrastructure Audit and identifying projects considered to be in the national and strategic interest. There may be the opportunity of creating a link between the NIU or Taskforce 3

4 and overseeing the implementation of a potentially combined National Planning Framework/Scottish Planning Policy to create a National Development Plan (NDP). There could then be a feedback loop into the NDP review process. Proposal 2: Establish an infrastructure fund and infrastructure levy, to be administered by the Scottish Ministers and statutory regional planning partnerships respectively RTPI Scotland believes that an infrastructure levy and infrastructure fund should both be established to fund strategic infrastructure. The infrastructure levy should be used to front fund non-local infrastructure which is either cross-boundary, transformative or otherwise genuinely strategic in nature. At the national level, an infrastructure fund should also be established by diverting existing Scottish Government resources in accordance with longestablished preventative spend principles. This national infrastructure fund should be sufficiently capitalised to front-fund transformative infrastructure to either catalyse major regeneration initiatives or to deliver specific projects which the National Infrastructure Unit or Taskforce assesses is required in the national interest (see proposal 1). RTPI Scotland believes that an infrastructure levy should be set in accordance with specific key principles and used to front fund strategic infrastructure. The levy framework should be developed and subsequently monitored by the new National Infrastructure Unit or Taskforce (see proposal 1), who should also administer a separate national infrastructure fund. Funding generated as a result of the infrastructure levy would be available to fund nonlocal projects. Regional Planning Partnerships or national bodies would be able to apply to Scottish Ministers for a share of the fund to deliver strategic priority projects. In our response to Places, People and Planning RTPI Scotland suggested that Regional Planning Partnerships should be obliged to prepare high level Regional Spatial Strategies. These documents would be used to support identification of priorities eligible for funding under the framework described above. Achieving the ambition of Places, People and Planning RTPI Scotland believes that the two linked proposals set out in this thinkpiece would directly implement the Infrastructure First approach to planning called for by the Independent Review of the Scottish Planning System and strongly supported by the Scottish Government. We do not believe that the infrastructure related proposals included in Places, People and Planning will themselves be sufficient to implement an Infrastructure First approach to planning. The first proposal, to establish a national mechanism for infrastructure planning, coordination and delivery, builds upon Proposal 13 of Places, People and Planning. For the reasons set out above, the proposal needs to go beyond the creation of a non-statutory delivery focused working group; it must also consider infrastructure needs and have a statutory footing. The second proposal, to establish a national infrastructure fund, infrastructure levy and statutory regional partnerships, builds upon Proposal 14 of the Consultation Paper. The use of the infrastructure levy should be underpinned by statutory regional planning 4

5 partnerships to ensure that specific infrastructure projects contribute to strategic regional planning. Implementing our proposal RTPI Scotland agrees with the Scottish Government s proposal to introduce an enabling power through primary legislation to introduce a new infrastructure levy for Scotland. Statutory duties should also be established through primary legislation for the terms of reference of a National Infrastructure Unit or Taskforce, overseen by Scottish Ministers and with responsibility for maintaining a strategic overview of national infrastructure needs and delivery. This should include the identification of infrastructure required to implement existing Scottish Government commitments and duties (e.g. the spatial strategy within the National Planning Framework and the achievement of targets under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009); all planning authorities, infrastructure providers and the UK National Infrastructure Commission to be statutory consultees to national infrastructure assessments; the creation and operation of regional planning partnerships. This will include requiring planning authorities, infrastructure providers, utility providers, Scottish Government and any other relevant stakeholders, to participate in and reach agreement on regional planning; an enhanced National Planning Framework (or National Development Plan); and, the Scottish Ministers and all planning authorities to take account of national infrastructure assessments within the preparation or review of the National Planning Framework (or a replacement National Development Plan) and Development Plans. Responsibilities RTPI Scotland envisages that a National Infrastructure Unit would comprise a small core team of civil servants within the Scottish Government, including chartered planners and other infrastructure specialists. This team would be overseen by a board or panel; experts charged with ensuring the independence and technical competency of national infrastructure assessments and strategic business case reviews for infrastructure projects. This panel would also be responsible for monitoring the delivery of strategic infrastructure projects. Resource implications RTPI Scotland recognises that these proposals have resource implications. We believe that this extra resource can be justified on the grounds of preventative spend and increasing the efficiency of infrastructure co-ordination, which in the medium to long term should deliver economic benefits for Scotland. A National Infrastructure Unit or Taskforce would only need a small team of dedicated staff, and statutory RPPs would be self-funded, thereby minimising new expenditure requirements. Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland, 18 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh EH3 8HQ scotland@rtpi.org.uk Head Office: Royal Town Planning Institute, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL Registered Charity Number: Scottish Registered Charity Number: SC