Planning and Infrastructure Bill
New clause briefing: Chief Planning Officers
RTPI proposal – a new clause requiring the establishment of a Chief Planning Officer in every planning authority: The establishment of a statutory Chief Planning Officer in every Local Planning Authority is an essential step towards delivering on the Government’s planning reform, recognising the pivotal role that planning departments across the country play in delivering long-term public benefit through the management and use of land.
Rationale
Place competency and accountability at the heart of decision making.
- Chief Planning Officers are a critical part of the democratic process, being best placed to provide impartial professional advice to elected members and build the critical relationships necessary for smooth local decision-making and democracy.
- 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.
- We note that proposals from Government for a new national scheme of delegation places Chief Planning Officers as integral to decision-making on delegation alongside Planning Committee conveners.
Resilient planning services to deliver growth.
- The RTPI believes it is important that local authorities have a clear planning structure and that the Chief Planning Officer be empowered to manage resource and training needs across planning functions.
- Planning departments need to have a Chief Planning Officer overseeing and connecting through management structures, both development management and development planning functions. When these functions are split, there have been well documented impacts upon performance.
- Following the inclusion of a mandatory provision of Chief Planning Officers in legislation the RTPI would expect subsequent guidance to set out the job description, including protections for planning teams from restructuring.
- The impending programme of devolution and local government reform will likely create larger teams covering larger geographies and co-operating with newly emerging strategic authorities, therefore the existing need to see strong leadership in the planning system will be magnified.
Build a world-leading planning system through vision and leadership.
- With planning represented at the corporate level in local authorities there is greater opportunity to set out long-term land use implications of strategic decision-making. This supports the drive towards an integrated vision for sustainable growth, which is critical at this time of challenging local government financing and reform.
- However, the RTPI has found that only 23% of local authorities surveyed had a head of planning service that reported directly to the local authority Chief Executive.
- The Chief Planning Officer role is key in brokering internal and external stakeholder relationships. This is particularly the case in being a conduit with the development industry as well as internally with elected members and local authority stakeholders.
- The requirement for a statutory Chief Planning Officer in Scotland came into effect in April 2024. The publication of the subsequent guidance has immediately brought around demonstrable improvements to the functioning of planning services throughout the country.
Proposed wording of new clause:
To move the following Clause -
“Chief Planning Officers
(1) The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is amended as follows.
(2) After section 1 insert—
“1A Planning authorities: chief planning officer
(1) Each planning authority must have a chief planning officer.
(2) The role of an authority’s chief planning officer is to advise the authority about the carrying out of—
(a) the functions conferred on the authority by virtue of the Planning Acts, and
(b) any function conferred on the authority by any other enactment, insofar as the function relates to the development or use of land.
(3) The Secretary of State must issue guidance to planning authorities concerning the role of an authority’s chief planning officer.
(4) A planning authority must not appoint a person as its chief planning officer unless satisfied that the person has appropriate qualifications and experience for the role.
(5) In deciding what constitutes appropriate qualifications and experience for the role of chief planning officer, a planning authority must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State under subsection (3).””
Member’s explanatory statement:
This new clause would place a duty on every local planning authority to appoint a Chief Planning Officer to perform planning functions and requires the authority to appoint sufficiently qualified persons to perform those functions, having regard to guidance given by the Secretary of State.
Contact:
The Royal Town Planning Institute champions the art and science of planning, working for the long-term common good and wellbeing of current and future generations and representing over 27,000 members across both public and private sectors.
The Bill presents an opportunity to deliver positive change for your constituents, therefore the RTPI urges MPs to seize the opportunity to support and enhance this legislation by tabling our proposed amendments at Committee stage. These include:
- Mandatory online availability of local planning authority committee meetings
- Statutory Chief Planning Officers
- The inclusion of a purpose of planning in the Bill
- Provisions for a National Spatial Framework
The RTPI is happy to support MPs and their offices throughout the passage of the Bill. If you would like to discuss any of the above or arrange a briefing on planning reform, please get in touch [email protected]
We also encourage Parliamentarians and their staff to visit our Planning Reform 2025 Hub, the home of all the RTPI’s planning reform related parliamentary briefings, commentary, blogs and consultation responses.