New policy paper calls on the Labour Party to embrace a reinvigorated public planning system

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The five core areas for planning reform that the paper outlines will enable local, regional and national   help to build stronger and more equitable communities and respond to the climate and housing crises. The paper calls for the next Labour government to establish a plan-led system, with properly resourced local, devolved and national government’s producing up-to-date plans developed through a democratic process.

The five overarching areas for reform emphasise ensuring communities have the much-needed resources for planning, ensuring greater democracy and participation in the planning process, establishing planning frameworks to address regional and spatial inequalities, and setting out how public planning can deliver green energy, and social and affordable housing.

To reach these goals, the paper contains a range of concrete policies. These recommendations include:

• Increasing land value capture and introducing progressive reforms to land and property taxation to fund social housing and infrastructure
• Restoring local government funding to pre-austerity levels in real terms   
• Re-instate a plan-led system, across the local, regional and national level plans, legislating for (properly funded) authorities to have up to date plans based on strong public engagement.
• Introduce a regional/devolved funding formula, like that for devolved nations, to ensure regional/devolved governments have consistent levels of resources following a needs-based approach.
• Give the highest policy priority to green energy and technology developments (e.g. removing de facto ban on onshore wind) and introducing local and regional carbon budgets.
• Invest in a new programme of social housing, with priority given to its development over housing only affordable to the top income deciles.
• Reforming land value capture and local taxation to capture unearned wealth from planning permission and land
• Following other nations and the ‘new town’ development corporation model of state-led public and private housing delivery

The paper argues that the current, “market-led” approach to planning which emphasises deregulation, privatisation and centralisation of powers is exacerbating the housing and environmental crises and failing to address inequality. The existing system erodes the ability of local planners to shape land use decisions in the public interest and for communities to benefit from these decisions. The authors point to the pollution of rivers and coasts, missed climate targets, rising inequality and the housing crisis resulting from the market-led approach. In addition, cash-strapped local governments have seen their capacity for planning reduced across the country over the past decade under austerity.