Local councils want more autonomy, more devolution but some seem unaware that with it goes local responsibility, or civic duty. Government inspectors have found that Shropshire Council’s draft local plan is unsound, despite raising their concerns with the council. The council are not providing the sites for overspill housing needed by their neighbours in the Black Country. Conservative Councillor Chris Schofield, Shropshire council’s cabinet member for planning says, according to a Planning report ( Alex King, 15 January 2025) the Inspectors on a number of issues have ‘sided with the arguments put forward by promoters of sites not included in the draft plan’. He goes on to say, which few will reject that “…above all we must consider what is best for Shropshire’s communities and how best to maintain a positive framework for making decisions at a time of significant upheaval in the national planning system.”. But interestingly whilst rightly concerned about the best interests of his local residents he seems to have no such interest or awareness of the big picture, the best interests of the nation, which are represented here by the government Inspectors. He seems happy to turn his back on this duty as a local leader. Is this mind-set striking the right balance?
Until local leaders accept that they have no democratic right to reject national policies intended to promote economic growth, whether new housing, new jobs or new national energy infrastructure they will unfortunately lead their local communities into a blind alley. Of course the Inspectors will favour new housing proposals if there are no alternatives being put forward by the local council. By what other means do inspectors have to ensure Shropshire meets its housing share? What Shropshire council needs to do is take responsibility for their own glaring policy omission, and speedily produce a spatial growth plan for their area which has local support. Of course work on this far-sighted policy should have started a decade ago, when David Cameron, as PM abolished strategic planning. Unfortunately for Shropshire council that misguided decision did not make their problem go away. It simply hid it for a while!
This policy omission is elementary stuff. But seems not to be widely understood. Put simply you cannot have prosperity, or economic growth without change of land use. Typically and plainly this means turning fields into housing. It can be done by trader builder developers who are only interested in short term trading profits or it can be done by local councils with a far wider, and far longer time horizons. Past reliance on the call for sites system has resulted in a broken system for the supply of new building land and a massive loss of trust by the public in the planning system. Which is the obvious result. Landowners are interested in outcomes for their own land, and quite rightly no more. When will the penny drop? Devolution means learning once again to be grown ups. Councils keen to accept devolution must wake up. Step one. Produce a one or two generations spatial plan, which shows where land use change can, and can never happen. Two get the support of all local political parties. And three persevere until you do. Then four involve or consult the residents. If you can’t get their support, tell the government you cannot deliver their national spatial policy. Then it becomes once again Whitehall’s problem.
Ian Campbell
21 January 2025
