The Raynsford Review of Planning has been set up to identify how the government can reform the English planning system to make it fairer, better resourced and capable of producing quality outcomes, while still encouraging the production of new homes. The interim report says that ‘the planning system is at a historically low ebb. Because of deregulation, planning in England is less effective than at any time in the postwar era, with an underfunded and deeply demoralised public planning service and conflicting policy objectives’.
It notes that economic growth is now widely considered to be the purpose of planning.’One significant implication of this position, raised by a number of respondents from the heritage, health and environmental sectors, is that the presumption in favour of development (which requires a very high test of harm) has had the effect of de-prioritising important planning considerations which might have improved the quality of development’.
It adds that “ironically, while deregulation has made planning less effective, the legal framework that underpins it has become more complex and confused, with fragmented legislation shaping differing aspects of local and national planning and little coordination between the two”.
The report says that, if there is one “striking conclusion” to be drawn from the work of the review to date, “it is that the current planning system in England does not work effectively in the long-term public interest of communities or the nation”’.