Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The overriding comparative characteristic of the English town and country
planning system is that of discretion in decision-making. National and regional
guidance and local policy instruments are the primary consideration for decision-
making, but they have merely a guiding function, and plans and strategies are not
legally binding. Policies and guidance at national level provide an effectively non-
spatial framework, and the general policies they set out are only expected to be
translated by local and regional actors into local and regional policies and initi-
atives. The statutory framework is essentially procedural; it is almost devoid of sub-
stantive content. For example, local authorities are given the duty to prepare
development plans, but what the plan should cover is very imprecise (Cullingworth
and Nadin, 2002). However, there have been attempts since the early 1990s to
implement a plan-led system, which aims at reducing the amount of
ad hoc
plan-
ning control.
The English planning system is notable for the comprehensive regulation of
land use and development, which is, however, strongly sectoral and largely sepa-
rated from controls on building, pollution and transport. There is a tradition of
departmental autonomy in the UK, both in central and in local government, and
there are few mechanisms which ensure integration. The lack of co-ordination of
the spatial impacts of sectoral policies, especially environment, transport, land use
planning and economic development, was extensively criticised in the late 1990s.
Over recent years, there have been improvements with regard to sectoral integra-
tion, especially in the areas of planning and transport.
Planning in England has until recently been mostly equated with the local
control of land use. Social and economic matters are relevant for considerations in
formulating plans and determining applications for development, but the objectives,
policies and proposals themselves were limited to specific land use matters.
However, a major reform of the planning system was initiated in 1998, with the
focus on new planning instruments at regional and local level. The reform of the
planning system has come in response to calls for a more 'spatial' approach to plan-
ning and greater integration and coherence of the various strategies with territorial
impacts in England, and is driven by the European agenda on spatial planning and
the aspiration to achieve more sustainable patterns of development. Thus, the
regional planning level in England will continue to increase in importance, and while
the
Compendium
(CEC, 1997) still considered the English planning system as
following the 'land use management' approach, this is now moving towards a more
comprehensive and integrated understanding of planning. Yet, at the time of writing,
it is difficult to clearly describe the English planning system, given the considerable
changes introduced by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 which are
currently being implemented. Therefore the review of the English planning system in
the following sections will cover both the 'old' and the 'new' planning systems.
