Lord Taylor’s report following his review into how Government Planning Practice Guidance could be made more accessible and effective has recently been published by DCLG.

The report follows a mammoth task in reviewing more than 200 documents and 7,000 plus pages of planning guidance.

Lord Taylor is critical of the current system and the plethora of existing guidance. His principal recommendations are based on a dramatic reduction in the amount of planning guidance, along with the introduction of a completely new web based system for the preparation and management of Guidance focusing on the essential.

Lord Taylor’s conclusions on the current system include:

- The current system is no longer fit for purpose. It is neither an effective suite of guidance, nor is it in a form which can be effectively managed and kept up to date by Government.

- The vast range of material (statements, circulars, guides, leaflets, letters, reports) have never been effectively managed as a whole.

- Many of the documents are wildly out of date (there are documents dating back as far as the 1960s / 1970s).

- The historic accumulation of out of date, contradictory and unmanageable material must be brought to an end.

- A dramatic reduction in the amount of planning guidance is required. Guidance must be whittled down to an essential, coherent, accessible and well managed suite that aids the delivery of good planning.

- Any new guidance must not be allowed to get into this confused state again.

Key recommendations include:

On the nature of guidance

- Government should be clearer on what is formal Government Guidance and what is not in order that the relative weight of guidance can be taken into account e.g. Formal Government Guidance needs to be taken into account by the courts.

- Guidance should be clear, concise, relevant and up to date.

- Guidance should be cut to that which is essential and clearly defined.

- Guidance should be kept easily accessible, explicable and in a single place. It should not be necessary to read or cross refer to several different documents in order to get the message.

- Statute, regulations and Statutory Instruments should be made clearer. This would reduce the need for additional guidance to then be prepared in order to explain what the statute says.

- Guidance should exclude best practice exemplar type information which is better provided by practitioner bodies.

- Guidance currently issued by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) should be incorporated into the new single coherent guidance resource and PINS should be involved as an advisor on the maintenance of the resource going forwards.

- Recent documents are clearer and more succinct. The style of the ‘Introduction to Neighbourhood Planning’ was particularly welcomed in Lord Taylor’s report and demonstrates that it is possible to prepare guidance that is accessible, useful and which can be kept relevant and up to date.

On the management of guidance

- Government Guidance should be collected in a coherent, up to date guidance suite, which should be a live resource hosted on a single web site. The website must contain formal Government Planning Practice Guidance only.

- The suite must be actively managed to keep it current and held as a critical task by DCLG.

- There must be a managed process for updating or cancelling documents as time passes. An annual review is proposed to ensure it remains as up to date as possible.

- There should be clear protocols for the uploading, presentation, updating and maintenance of the Guidance. New essential material and the process for updating it should be managed by the Chief Planner. Material will need to be readily printable and date stamped.

Timetable

Lord Taylor considers that because the present guidance is unfit for purpose, it cannot just be decanted into the new website. New material should be prepared as a matter of priority. The aim should be to have the majority of this work completed by July 2013 at which time all the existing guidance should be cancelled so there is one up to date web based Government Planning Guidance resource.

The report which takes forward the simplification and streamlining of the planning system sets a challenging programme and it remains to be seen whether sufficient Government resources will be put in place to ensure the July 2013 programme is met. The report proposes a lot of change. However, a substantial reduction in paper and the helpful recognition that Guidance can never replace local judgement or the application of professional expertise should mean that the report is welcomed by Planning Practitioners as well as the development industry.

Please contact Kieron Hodgson on 020 3435 4218 or khodgson@iceniprojects.com should you require any additional information.

The full report including annexes can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/external-review-of-government-planning-practice-guidance

The report is subject to a public consultation until 15 February 2013.

The Governments consultation paper can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-planning-practice-guidance