Hansard

The effectiveness of our planning system affects aspects of all our lives: it affects the quality of our environments and the sustainability of our communities; it influences local services and opportunities; and it helps to determine how we feel as individuals when we leave our homes, walk out the door and embrace the day ahead of us.

Planning, as the title of the consultation suggests, is about places, place making and, most importantly, people. Whether it be the places where we live, where we work or that we visit, planning and places have a real impact on all our lives.

As the constituency MSP for the most densely populated part of Scotland, I will focus my remarks on matters that affect our urban environments. As a representative for Edinburgh, I warmly welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to change the planning system because, in this city—our capital city—there is considerable dissatisfaction with the status quo.

I welcome the ambition of the consultation to change the planning system so that it can play a more active role in making development happen and—crucially—happen in the right places. I fully endorse the Scottish Government’s determination to improve community engagement. There is much that I could say on planning and in relation to my constituency, but I will focus on three aspects of the consultation: building more homes; infrastructure investment and related considerations; and giving local people a more effective voice in the system.

First, on building more homes, in the north of Edinburgh there is significant capacity to develop unused and underused land for our growing capital city. I welcome the possibility that the consultation provides of accelerating development in areas such as north Edinburgh, where development has been stalled since the financial crisis of 2008. I look forward to new legislation helping us to realise development in the waterfront area, where there is huge potential, and in other parts of Scotland so that we can deliver on the ambitious and important target of providing 50,000 affordable homes in the course of the current parliamentary session.

In addition to the measures in the consultation, I wonder whether greater consideration can be given to using the planning system to make it easier for unused land to be utilised now and in the short term while it is awaiting full development. We could use innovative solutions by means of temporary installations or so-called “interwhile” solutions, which could include measures to utilise shipping container models, or other potential solutions such as the NestHouse model, which, when it is installed, will be used in my constituency in the proposed Social Bite village in Granton to help to address homelessness.

Secondly, I welcome the proposals in the consultation to introduce powers for a new local levy to raise additional finance for infrastructure and to make improvements to section 75 obligations. That will make a meaningful difference. Others have raised the point about GP practices, but I would like to raise another other point. North Edinburgh Childcare, which is a remarkable organisation in my constituency, recently emphasised to me the need to give greater consideration to the capacity of childcare provision in a geographical area when it comes to planning. North Edinburgh Childcare will respond to the consultation, and I look forward to the Scottish Government considering that organisation’s ideas, particularly given the Government’s strong commitment to significantly increase the availability of childcare.

Thirdly, I warmly welcome the consultation’s ambition to give local people a more effective voice in the system, to involve them at an early stage and to examine how statutory requirements can be improved accordingly to encourage early engagement.

Over recent years in my constituency, there have been several planning decisions that have been overwhelmingly against the wishes of the affected local communities. In general, those decisions have related to small-scale development plans that were believed to be out of kilter with the make-up of the respective areas, and local people have campaigned hard against such development plans. Whether we are talking about the save Canonmills bridge campaign, the save Heriot hill campaign, the concerns about development at 127 Trinity Road or other local campaigns, many local groups in my constituency feel that their voice has not been heard in the current system, so I sincerely welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to bring about change and to listen to communities.

The consultation proposes to give people an opportunity to design their own places. I warmly welcome that approach and have seen how it can make a difference in Newhaven and Broughton, where co-designers and consultants such as HERE+NOW, based in Edinburgh, have worked with local organisations to deliver meaningful projects.

I also welcome the intention in the consultation to invest in community planning, and I particularly look forward to seeing the results of the Scottish Government-funded charrette to look at planning and social issues in Leith that will be delivered by the local organisations Citizen Curator and Leith Creative.

Lastly, I welcome the consultation’s proposal to involve community councils. I have seen how that has made a difference when it has happened at an early stage in the process, particularly with big developments. Communities and developers have been able to engage in good faith.

On keeping decisions local, there is an issue about rights of appeal. In the consultation, the issue of a third-party right of appeal is addressed and ruled out in the case of a local authority decision in favour of a developer. I agree with that. On the other hand, however, the consultation does not refer directly to the situation that arises when a local authority and local councillors refuse planning permission, but development is subsequently permitted by appeal. That has happened in my constituency and the decisions of local elected members have been undermined. I believe that that imbalance is problematic and should be thoroughly considered.

I emphasise that I warmly welcome the consultation. Through improved building standards and planning, and through the creativity of Scotland’s architects and communities, we can do more to enhance the places that we live in and the spaces that we share. I look forward to the positive change ahead.