RTPI calls for government 'commitment' to the UK's planning system

The head of the country’s town planners has called for a commitment from all levels of government to boost the country’s planning system “to benefit everyone in the country”.

Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, was responding to a report produced by the UK2070 Commission, which is chaired by former head of the civil service Lord Kerslake.

Highlighting the cost of inequality across the UK, the UK2070 Commission’s report argued that the productivity gap in the English regions was estimated to cost the economy around £40bn, while the gap in housing affordability in London and wider south east compared with the rest of England and Wales had almost doubled.

The report also highlighted poor funding for local enterprise partnerships, leading to regional disparities, while the current imbalanced patterns of economic development undermine the country’s capacity to deliver on its international obligations for sustainable development and climate change.

The commission argued that a rebalanced economy would still see substantial growth of between 2.4 million and 4.3 million jobs in London and its wider region, but with a doubling of the rate of job growth elsewhere.

The RTPI’s Hills said: “The UK 2070 Commission’s call for a serious rebalancing of the country’s regional economies through better strategic planning needs to be urgently heeded.

“The RTPI has long championed the power of planning in tackling inequalities and entrenched patterns of economic and social development.”

She highlighted an RTPI report published last week which, she said, “called for joined up planning across the North to do just this”.

Among the RTPI’s own report’s recommendations was a call for a transformational vision for delivering housing “in the right place, at the right scale, quality and affordability and the development of alternative models for collaborative brownfield/greenfield planning so as to stimulate urban regeneration and boost the delivery of affordable homes in and around rural and coastal settlements.

“We need commitment now from all levels of government to channel resources into re-invigorating our planning system to benefit everyone in the long term,” Hills added.