How to level up strategic planning policy
Introduction
Back in May 2022, the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill included the option for local authorities to jointly prepare a Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) . We reviewed the draft legislation to understand how the introduction of voluntary SDSs could change the plan-making framework – our take on it here1. One of our conclusions was the importance of getting the detail right with legislation and policy to facilitate and incentivise strategic planning, given the voluntary status of SDSs.
Now the bill has become an Act, little of significance has changed in respect of the legislation for SDSs. And in the latest NPPF (December 2023), despite the reforms to national planning policy consultation published in December 20222, there are no changes in here to the plan-making framework in relation to SDSs. But what we do have is reference in this consultation for a forthcoming ‘wider’ review of the NPPF. There will be a need for government to make amendments to the NPPF and give it an appropriate framework and national policy to steer and incentivise SDSs.
This article explores a selection of sections in the December 2023 NPPF that relate to plan-making and what in our view needs to be considered and amended following the wider review of the NPPF to come.
So their starting point should not be to identify and meet objectively assessed needs for housing and other uses, like LPs, but to develop a spatial strategy that meets a range of sub-regional and national policy objectives, whilst taking into account the development potential and sustainable capacity (or sustainable limits) of authority area(s), so that LPs can then work from this to prepare detailed policies on the amount, timing, and (red-line) location of development allocations.
The starting point and primary objective for plan-making in the NPPF is to meet objectively assessed needs for housing (and other uses) – see paragraph 11b – subject to ‘strong reasons for restricting development’ ‘or where adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits’. This is well established and understood for local plans (LPs), but should this be the starting point and main objective for SDSs?
To help shape this for SDSs there are pointers in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (LURA). Firstly, it says that that LPs need to assess the amount of housing needed in an authority area but does not say this for SDSs3. Secondly, the LURA also says that LPs should cover the amount, type, location and timetable for development4. In comparison, the LURA says that policies covering the development and use of land should be covered in an SDS5, and that this should be only for strategic purposes – that is, across local authority boundaries. Therefore there is no requirement for SDSs to assess housing need or include policies on the amount of development or a timetable for delivery of development.
We infer from this legislation that the intention of SDSs is to give LPs a steer on a strategy within which LPs can consider amount, type, location of development and so on. Furthermore, we also know that LPs are a requirement6 (and SDSs are not7) and therefore that authorities will be working on LPs now with plan periods over the next 10 – 15 years. With this in mind, starting an SDS should (and has to) look beyond current LPs being prepared. This makes sense as SDSs are not required to show the same level of detail as an LP. Therefore, if an LP is looking to 2040 as its plan period then an SDS should be looking to 2050 and beyond, starting from 2040. One other approach could be for SDSs to assist in collective LP five-year reviews following their adoption.
The Starting Point
What Should Plans Do?
Chapter 3 of the NPPF is about plan-making and sets the scene for the purposes of plan-making and their principles. Paragraphs 15 and 16 are written with LPs in mind, though much of the content of these paragraphs applies equally to SDSs.
However, it needs to acknowledge there are slight differences. For example, paragraph 16b references that plans should be ‘deliverable’. On the basis of the narrative above, with SDSs looking much longer term than LPs and providing a spatial or policy framework within which LPs perform as ‘action plans’, an SDS will not be ‘deliverable’ in the same way a LP is. This is an important point to distinguish SDSs and LPs.
The Plan-Making Framework
The plan-making framework is also in chapter 3. This sets out the different ways of producing strategic policies – essentially the content of plans. As it stands, strategic policies can either be included in LPs or joint LPs, or in SDSs. SDSs are already included here as they have been available for some Combined Authorities in the past 10 years.
But paragraph 17b will need to be updated to acknowledge that SDSs can be taken up on a voluntary basis and distinguish between the two. Paragraph 17 also refers to ‘strategic policies’ which (as we discuss below) will not be entirely applicable to SDSs. Therefore this section of the NPPF would benefit from an explanation about SDSs and how they are different from LPs, to lead into a re-write of the section about strategic policies which starts at paragraph 20.
The strategic policies section starts at paragraph 20. It explains and describes the content for plans to include. However, it is focussed on LPs and does not differentiate between LPs and SDSs already allowed in some Combined Authorities, so there will need to be a section on voluntary SDSs. For example, paragraph 20 requires policies to ‘make sufficient provision for housing’ (and so on) which aligns with LPs and meeting objectively assessed needs, but is not applicable to SDSs in the context of what is written in the LURA on this point. In addition, paragraph 23 adds that ‘policies should provide a clear strategy to bringing sufficient land forward…to address objectively assessed needs over the plan period’.
To start laying out the content for policies in SDSs, there are pointers in the LURA and the accompanying explanatory notes, some of which we have discussed above.
In summary SDSs should:
- Focus purely on strategic matters and not cover ground that is better suited to either LPs or national policy.8
- Deal with issues of strategic importance – including cross boundary matters (particularly those spatial policies and objectives that are relevant to a sub-regional area).9
- Focus on development and use of land that is strategically important.10
- Ensure development mitigates and adapts to climate change.11
- Take account of Local Nature Recovery Strategies.12
They should not:
- Include a timetable for development delivery (at least not as detailed as a LP trajectory).
- Specify sites where development should take place (more appropriate are broad locations that do not have a red line boundary)13.
- Take into account an assessment of the amount of housing needed.
However, there are still many unknowns about voluntary SDSs and how they should work. For example, the alignment test which will replace the Duty to Co-operate will also need to be clarified for SDSs and LPs; as well how examinations will work for SDSs that do not contain as much detail as LPs, and look further ahead, which means less focus on delivery per se and more on how effective SDS policy is in ensuring delivery of strategic objectives through LPs. There are also issues like Green Belt of which land is released in LPs but the principle of release could be set out in the SDS.
Finally, picking up on points above, it will be important to make clear the relationship between LPs and SDSs, particularly on the plan-periods and when SDSs should begin.
The Content of Spatial Development Strategies
Summary and Conclusions
So, to sum up, what have we learnt about SDSs?
- That SDSs are distinct from LPs and need to be distinguished from LPs going forward.
- That they must focus purely on strategic (cross boundary) matters.
- That they must set a strategy for LPs to follow.
- That they should be much longer-term than LPs given the focus and requirement for LPs to be adopted.
- That they should develop a spatial strategy, that meets a range of sub-regional and national policy objectives, so that LPs can then set out the detail on the amount of development needed and the timetable of delivery for it.
- That they are not about assessing the quantity of development needed over a plan period – that is for LPs!
The introduction of SDSs in the LURA is a good step to facilitate strategic planning and strategic plan-making on a statutory basis after over a decade of ill-fitting joint LPs. Although making SDSs mandatory was a missed opportunity, focus must be now on incentivising SDSs and promoting their incentives to raise the profile of them and the benefits of starting one and adopting one. The first step in incentivising SDSs is getting the national policy framework right and the above is a starting point in developing this framework.
National policy can only go so far and there will need to be further incentives. The update to the NPPF will need to be twin-tracked with updates to the Planning Practice Guidance for SDSs. The PPG is also focussed on LPs, so there will need to be bespoke sections for evidence base, content of plans, relationships with LPSs, and so on. There will also need to be discussion and exploration of the data that is needed to support the evidence base; it will need to be different from what LPs require. Again, less emphasis on delivery and more about opportunity and developability. Further, the benefits and value of SDS as a vehicle for strategic planning should be advocated and publicised by the wider industry as it is unlikely we will see this from government. Without these initiatives, SDSs will likely sit and gather legislative moss which would be a missed opportunity.
1 https://www.davidlock.com/a-glimpse-into-the-new-plan-making-framework/
3 LURA Schedule 7, 15C, 8
4 LURA Schedule 7, 15C, 3
5 LURA, Schedule 7, 15AA, 1
6 LURA Schedule 7, 15C, 1
7 LURA Schedule 7, 15A, 1
8 Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill Explanatory Notes
9 LURA Schedule 7, 15AA, 2
10 LURA Schedule 7, 15AA, 1
11 LURA Schedule 7, 15AA, 8
12 LURA Schedule 7, 15AA, 9
13 LURA Schedule 7, 15AA, 10b
