by Stephen Reynolds
The Localism Act is one of the Coalition Government's flagship pieces of legislation. It's about handing power back to local councils, giving communities a say in how they're run, giving you the chance to get your voice heard in how you are governed. But, the question is, if it's so great, why have you most probably never heard of it or know what it does? To be honest I'm not completely sure but I'll tell you a bit of what I know about how it affects planning policy.
Government passed the act on 2011. This gave lots of power to local councils and communities. One of these powers was to give communities the power to have a say in how planning policy is made in their area. A group of local residents (between 21 and 28 people that must include local councilors and business representatives) assemble themselves and put together a 'Neighbourhood Plan'. In this they go through a defined area ('their neighbourhood') and decide what their area should consist of and what it should be like.
Once they've decided on the Neighbourhood plan they put it to local referendum, if it passes by 50% plus 1 it becomes planning legislation that has to be followed in their area. Easy. Right?
Once they've decided on the Neighbourhood plan they put it to local referendum, if it passes by 50% plus 1 it becomes planning legislation that has to be followed in their area. Easy. Right?
I'm afraid to say not quite. There are a lot of complexities to the process. Between 2011 and today only one community in Cumbria has got to the stage of their referendum passing, and that was in March this year. There are many layers of planning policy that these groups have to adhere too in their community plan. The National Planning Policy framework was released in 2012 and is national government's latest guidelines on how planning should work. On top of this there is local council planning policy as well as other regulation levels that have to be understood by the group of volunteers that make up the Neighbourhood Planning Team. To give an example of how hard this can be, Croydon's planning guidelines alone are just shy of 200 pages. Once this is understood the next problem is reaching a consensus that will then pass referendum within the local community. Then you have to actually get local people to care enough to go out and vote in favour of your Neighbourhood Plan. Finally there's the problem of what do you actually do with the plan once it's been passed? Without companies actually wanting to invest in your area either to develop business or build housing your neighbourhood plan is, well, pretty pointless. To top it all off there is no funding to support any of this and only a few stretched organisations that can support local people to do this.
So, you may ask, what is the point in this? This legislation is a great opportunity for people to engage positively in the planning process. Currently people see planning as a negative process; 'I don't want that here' or 'Not in my backyard'. This gives the opportunity for people to say 'I want my community to look like this' or 'My housing estate should look like that'. As well as this positive engagement people can have, the planning group has to engage with the local community in a consultation exercise and a consensus has to be reached in order for the plan to be passed into regulation through the referendum. This consultation and consensus reaching can be long winded but means that the plan has the largest amount of support.
So, I may not have educated you much more on the localism bill but I at least hope this has piqued your interest. This government legislation has the power to revolutionise the way people look at planning and really have an input into the physical aspect of their local communities but there are barriers to overcome on the way.
Locality, a nationwide network of development trusts, and community enterprises, can help support Neighbourhood plan groups:
