Last week the DCLG announced 40 new pilots –or what it terms as ‘front-runners’ – to trial neighbourhood planning rights outlined in the Localism Bill. DCLG decentralisation minister Greg Clark explains why he believes the new planning system will be good for councils.

As readers of The MJ will know this country’s planning system has grown increasingly acrimonious in recent years. Centralised decision-making has pitched developers against communities, councils against residents. Elected members, much like planning officers, have been caught in the crossfire,. hemmed in on the one side by regional strategies and top down housing targets, and, on the other, by local communities who feel put upon and alienated from the process.

Clark: local communities themselves will have new opportunities to shape local development (Pic: Matt Hobley)

Through the Localism Bill, the Government is proposing profound reform. Perhaps the single most radical proposal is neighbourhood planning. In the future, instead of being told what will happen to the cities, towns and villages they love, local communities themselves will have new opportunities to shape local development. They will be able to define, together, where new homes and businesses should go, and what they should look like.

Far from holding up much-needed development, neighbourhood planning will help unlock it. When communities have the chance to shape plans themselves, and to feel the benefits of local growth - through the new homes bonus, community infrastructure levy, and (in the longer term) an end to the instant spiriting away of business rates to Whitehall - they will have real reasons to welcome development, rather than resist it.

Although the formal provisions of neighbourhood planning will not kick in until after the Bill has received Royal Assent, communities and councils are already keen to get on with showing just how putting power in the hands of local people can work. To date, 90 different communities are trialling neighbourhood planning, in a mix of cities, urban and rural areas.

Places such as Breckland, Gateshead and Torbay are receiving £20,000 of support from government each. We have a total of £5m of support available, and will be inviting a further round of bids very soon. The more places take part, and the greater the diversity of different areas, the more lessons there will be to draw when the formal legal provisions take effect.

The introduction of neighbourhood planning spells big changes for elected members. Some felt the original drafting of the Localism Bill might exclude them from the process. That was not my intention - quite the contrary - and at report stage we brought forward amendments, ensuring that councillors can play their legitimate and important role in the debate about their neighbourhood’s future. This is an opportunity for councillors to get out of the crossfire and approach planning in a much more positive way: to work closely with local communities, helping them articulate their ambitions for the place where they live, and making sure that the powers-that-be deliver the result that they want. This is, after all, what the job is all about. So we very much hope that elected members and planning officers will match communities’ enthusiasm, and embrace a better way of doing planning.

The 40 new ‘front-runners’ will each receive £20,000

Greg Clark last week announced a total of 40 pilot areas– a mix of cities, urban and rural areas – which will join 50 other communities already trialling neighbourhood planning. The DCLG says that ‘the positive reaction to the first wave of communities announced last month and developing neighbourhood plans has led to many more communities coming forward. ‘

The 40 neighbourhood planning so-called ‘front-runners’ will be led by local authorities who will work with community groups and parish councils to prepare draft plans and neighbourhood development orders.

Each of the 40 areas will receive £20,000 towards developing their plan from a £5m fund set up to help those communities eager to trial neighbourhood planning in 2011/12.

Applications are also being invited from other communities eager to trial neighbourhood planning as part of the fourth wave of frontrunners.

The neighbourhood planning ‘front runners’ will prepare planning documents in close collaboration with community groups and parish councils. These documents will be prepared under the current legal and policy framework ahead of the new provisions for neighbourhood planning that will be introduced through the Localism Bill.

When the provisions of the Localism Bill are enacted, the DCLG says neighbourhood plans will give communities a much greater say on what gets built, but they must be in line with wider ambitions for growth in the council’s development plan.

The maps of the new pilot areas can be found here.

A detailed guide to the Localism Bill can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localismplainenglishguide

 The 40 ‘front runner’ communities (local areas in brackets) are for the following local authority areas:

1. Birmingham (Handsworth and Lozells)

2. Breckland (Attleborough)

3. Bristol (Redcliffe)

4. Broadland (Hellesdon)

5. Broadland (Salhouse)

6. Broadland (Strumpshaw)

7. Broadland (Thorpe St Andrew)

8. Cherwell (Wroxton)

9. Cheshire East (Congleton)

10. Cheshire East (Middlewich)

11. Cheshire East (Sandbach)

12. Crawley (Three Bridges)

13. Dacorum (Hemel Hempstead)

14. East Lindsey (Holton Le Clay and Tetney)

15. East Lindsey (Mablethorpe)

16. East Northamptonshire (Oundle)

17. Enfield (Edmonston Green)

18. Gateshead (Brandling)

19. Hartlepool (Elwick and Greatham)

20. Herefordshire (Leominster)

22. Kensington and Chelsea (Markham Square)

23. Melton (Asfordby)

24. Milton Keynes (Castlethorpe, Lake Estate, Stony Stratford and Wolverton)

25. Newark and Sherwood (Bridge Ward)

26. North Somerset (Backwell)

27. Northumberland National Park Authority

28. Shropshire (Kinnerley)

29. Shropshire (Underdale, Monkmoor & Abbey)

30. South Gloucestershire (Hanham)

31. South Holland (Holbeach)

32. South Norfolk (Cringleford)

33. Sunderland (Hetton Downs)

34. Swale (Faversham Creek)

35. Telford (Ercall Magna)

36. Telford (Madeley)

37. Torbay (Brixham)

38. West Dorset (Sherborne)

39. Wirral (Hoylake Village)

40. Wolverhampton (Bilston Corridor)