Meeting of the Parliament 11 January 2023
I am afraid that I do not have time, but I am happy to take an intervention when I conclude the debate.
To support that important principle for new development, we will publish and invite views on new guidance on local living and 20-minute neighbourhoods.
It will take extensive collaboration and commitment across sectors to deliver NPF4. Local authorities are key partners. The strength of NPF4 is in connecting planning with wider work, through the place principle, which involves everyone. To aid that work, a new planning, infrastructure and place advisory group is being established to oversee the delivery and support the implementation of NPF4.
The committee rightly highlighted concerns about capacity and skills, and we are already acting to address those issues. Last April, I increased planning fees to provide additional resource for planning services across Scotland, and a further increase was implemented last month to support the assessment of applications under the Electricity Act 1989. I have been working closely with the high-level group on planning performance to explore how planning fees can move towards full cost recovery, in order to more accurately cover the cost of handling applications.
However, funding is only one part of the solution. I agree with the committee that
“all endeavours must be made to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of planners in place to deliver on the ambitions of NPF4.”
Work is already under way with the high-level group to enhance people resources and skills. The future planners project, which sets out a number of practical actions, is a good example of that. I am also liaising with the relevant Government ministers to ensure that planning features in the recently announced skills review and as part of our green skills activity.
I also note that, in its conclusion, the committee states that
“It is not satisfactory to simply assume that planning policy is now set for ten years and can be left as it is”.
I assure Parliament that no such assumption has been made by me or this Government. This year, we will bring forward regulations that will set out how we can make changes to NPF4 in the future.
NPF4 is not an aspirational document; it is a plan for action, to be proactively pursued and delivered. If approved today, and once adopted, NPF4 will form part of the statutory development plan and have a substantial influence on all planning decisions.
Should the Parliament give its approval to NPF4, the Government will move quickly to adopt it next month. I will first lay regulations in the Parliament to commence the provisions of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 so that NPF4 becomes part of the statutory development plan immediately following its adoption. I can confirm that, prior to adoption, we will also issue transitional guidance to help to smooth the shift from the old system to the new one over the early weeks and months. In the coming weeks, I will also lay regulations and publish related guidance that will pave the way for the new-style local development plans that will sit alongside NPF4.
It is important to remember that NPF4 is one part of a wider statutory development plan. In all cases, NPF4 will be taken together with local development plans to form the basis of decisions, and decision makers will also take into account material considerations. With those intrinsic links between planning policy at both the national and local levels, the detailed reforms to local development planning, alongside NPF4, will set the arrangements for producing stronger place-focused plans and will reinforce the plan-led system.
There is no doubt that there is a lot still to do to turn NPF4 from good intentions into reality. Although much of planning is procedural and practical by its very nature, we risk losing sight of its purpose if we focus solely on its component parts. Planning is far from prosaic. It helps to form the very foundation of policy making. From it, all else flows.
Planning is undoubtedly about place, but it is also about people. It defines and enables development in every aspect of our lives. It informs the where, what and how of living, working and travelling. It plays a crucial role in attracting investment and in facilitating the type of development that we will need in order to build a wellbeing economy, and, by necessity, it deems what we should not do, where we should not do it and how to prevent undesirable development.