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April 2017
The Town and Country Planning Act 1947, introduced by a Labour government set out the requirement of planning permission from local authority, with provision to appeal against refusal.
The 1947 Act also introduced a requirement for local authorities to develop forward-looking policy documents to outline requirements of future development. Since planning policy has become the lynchpin of the British planning system, and today is coming under more scrutiny than ever with the green belt and housing size standards taking centre stage. Design and planning policy’s interest and control over the subject has ebbed and flowed, with the highs of CABE in the early 2000s and the arguable lows of the Localism Act 2011.
Good policy can transform a place, shaping a bright future with greater certainty for all stakeholders. Masterplans and design codes, whilst the most prescriptive, being almost architectural in their detail, help to co-ordinate inputs across large areas as well as overcoming standard approaches to design and create more place specific guidance – something lacking in the UK.
Some of the best examples were nominated at the National Urban Design Awards in 2017. These include Plymouth City Council’s Plymouth City Centre and Waterfront Masterplans; South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils’ South Oxfordshire Design Guide 2016 and Swindon Borough Council’s Residential Design Guide. You can find out more about their plans here.
Weak policy often leads to bad results. Leaving development to the open market can work, but so often the finer details of a place can be lost, ultimately leading to poor quality places. In a recent module in my Urban Design and City Planning MSc, we looked at more than 15 London-based planning policy documents, from neighbourhood plans to area action plans, detailing the incentive for development, guidance and control that the documents had. Not one was perfect, and the lack of detail was concerning. One blog that shows what a lack of planning can do is Ugly Belgian Houses, a blog aimed to draw attention to the lack of planning in Belgium. The photo essay shows hundreds and hundreds of ugly houses, where the architects and owners had been left to their own devices.
It’s not the fault of local authorities. They’ve faced huge cuts in recent years, with many planning departments now woefully underfunded and under-resourced. Time is often spent firefighting issues and compromising on design rather than rejecting applications in case of appeals taking more resources to fight it once again. If more time were spent writing plans, strengthening the policy framework in terms of specific requirements and drawings, it would provide reassurances for all involved: the council, developers and the public, that every proposed development would have to meet expectations and ultimately lead to a better built environment.
