We live in a monumental time for planning reform | The Royal Town Planning Institute

Lazaros Tsenekidis is Senior Public Affairs Officer at the RTPI

Liverpool set the tone last week with planning back at the centre of the growth conversation. For the RTPI, our focus was simple – delivery and implementation – and our programme brought ministers, parliamentarians and sector leaders into the same room to talk about what it will take.

The headline: New towns move from idea to timetable

Housing Secretary Steve Reed MP used conference to confirm Labour’s new towns programme and pledged that work on the first three sites will begin before the next election – Tempsford (Bedfordshire), Crews Hill (North London), and Leeds South Bank. The plan forms part of a wider ambition to designate at least 12 new towns delivering large-scale, well-serviced, communities over time, with a substantial affordable housing component.

Commentary across the built-environment press underscored how centrally housing featured in Liverpool this year, and how the new towns agenda will now be judged on speed, quality, and enabling planning reforms.

The RTPI convened a private, Chatham House roundtable on delivery and implementation last Tuesday, with the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook MP delivering the keynote to open the discussion. Our members had the opportunity to hear directly from the Minister on the current planning reforms as well as putting forward our key asks for Government planning reforms.

RTPI Chief Executive Dr Victoria Hills speaks with Matthew Pennycook MP  at the roundtable

The RTPI private Chatham House roundtable on delivery and implementation

Three messages cut through:

Planning is an economic enabler. If growth is the goal, planning departments must be resourced to make timely, high-quality decisions.
Leadership matters. Elevating planning at the top table locally, through senior professional leadership, improves throughput and coordination. Our ask for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill for statutory Chief Planning Officers at every local planning authority has been echoed throughout conference and during our meetings with political stakeholders.
The pipeline is pivotal. Protecting routes like the Level 7 Chartered Town Planner apprenticeship is essential if councils and industry are to recruit at the scale reforms demand.

Re:State convened a private roundtable discussion with Antonia Bance MP on building the homes of the future supported by RTPI and CIOB, RIBA and RICS. Three messages came out of the event:

Collaboration at the right geography. Strong backing for mayoral/strategic planning and spatial development strategies, plus continued cross-boundary cooperation.
A durable skills pipeline. The binding constraint is people. Participants urged predictable, long-term training routes and confidence for firms to invest – echoing the RTPI’s call to protect and expand Chartered Town Planning apprenticeship pathways. While the Government has announced the recruitment of 300 new planners, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill impact assessment has identified that the preparation of Strategic Development Strategies could require 150-200 new planners. There will also be workforce capacity implications in the bringing forward of development corporations for new towns, which needs to be adequately assessed.
Quantity with standards. Placemaking approach to ensure accelerated delivery produces well-designed, sustainable communities.

Victoria with Mike Reader MP, Northampton South and Chair of the APPG for Excellence in the Built Environment and Chair of the APPG on Infrastructure

Victoria Antonia Bance MP, MP for Tipton and Wednesbury, and member of the Business and Trade Committee

What we are taking forward

Capacity and skills as the non-negotiables for delivery – particularly protecting the Level 7 route to sustain the workforce pipeline. In another panel, Antonia Bance MP mentioned that a Skills White Paper is set to be released soon, to tackle the skills shortages in the built environment sector.
Leadership – the need for statutory Chief Planning Officers in every local authority. RTPI research found that 9% of local authorities had no clear ‘head of planning service’ employed. This is particularly concerning in the case of planning committees, where under the local authority’s Scheme of Delegation, the powers to determine applications are delegated to the Chief Planning Officer, placing the role as integral to transparent and clear decision-making locally.
Strategic coherence – linking spatial plans to long-term infrastructure so delivery is coordinated, not piecemeal.

As our Chief Executive Dr Victoria Hills put it during Conference, “planning is having a real moment”. With Ministers, MPs and sector leaders centring delivery, there is a genuine opportunity to translate ambition into outcomes. Victoria’s message to the sector and Government was clear: “We need to draw a line and get the system delivering.”

That means resourcing local planning teams, protecting the skills pipeline, and giving the leadership and tools to make timely, high-quality decisions – so growth is delivered at pace and with confidence.

Liverpool showed that planning is central to Government’s growth mission, but delivery will stand or fall on capacity, leadership and skills. With new towns on the agenda, two major Bills in train, and a skills white paper signalled, the window to get this right is now. The RTPI will keep working with ministers, parliamentarians, and partners to secure a plan-led, place-based system that is properly resourced, protects the L7 pipeline, and gives planners the tools and authority to deliver creative, sustainable, communities at pace, with quality and public confidence.