Royal Town Planning Institute Parliamentary briefing ahead of Second Reading on 2 September
Overview
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) champions the art and science of planning, working for the long-term common good and wellbeing of current and future generations and representing over 27,000 members across both public and private sectors.
The RTPI is very supportive of the Government’s devolution agenda, being taken forward through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill and Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB). This includes proposals for national coverage of strategic authorities, who will produce the spatial development strategies (SDSs), as set out in the PIB, as well as the devolution of planning powers to mayors. These changes will hopefully provide much needed spatial vision and strategic coordination across local authorities. Patterns of development, employment and transport span across local authority boundaries, and up until now, areas without devolution deals have not been able to benefit from strategic-level ambitions that often align more closely with these patterns.
The RTPI recognises that this Bill sits as part of a wider programme of local government and planning reform and we look forward to working closely with stakeholders in responding to the associated regulations and guidance, supported by our members who will be fundamental through the transition period and into its implementation.
Effective scrutiny of this Bill will be critical to the impact and effectiveness in ushering in a new era of regional empowerment, growth and identity. In advance of the Second Reading debate on 2 September 2025, this briefing sets out the RTPI’s assessment of the Bill and opportunities for MPs to refine and enhance the provisions, supporting the Government’s ongoing planning reforms.
Our six key asks around the Bill are:
- Commissioners to operate a place-based approach, working collaboratively.
- The establishment of rural affairs commissioners, where appropriate.
- Evidence mayoral collaboration through the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy.
- Ensure neighbourhood governance structures contribute to a plan-led system.
- To support transition, reverse changes to Level 7 apprenticeship funding or provide a capital investment of £6.8million to meet the short-term workforce needs of the new system.
- Ensure effective implementation through the preparation of a long-term workforce strategy.
Putting ‘place’ at the heart of decision-making
The shift of power from central to local government fundamentally reframes our thinking nationally to focus on the needs of specific places. A place-based approach is a collaborative and holistic method of establishing the unique characteristics of areas and tailoring interventions to address local needs. This approach is at the forefront of how planning and planners operate and will be further supported by SDSs, but we want to ensure that the rest of the legislation promotes and embeds these ambitions.
The Bill states that Mayors can appoint commissioners relating to seven areas of competence outlined in Clause 2, however, we do not believe these should be viewed in isolation, given their intersecting remits. The Bill should be amended to encourage commissioners to operate a place-based approach and ensure that commissioners across different areas of competence work collaboratively to meet the needs and drive positive outcomes for specific places as a whole.
This focus on place would complement the Government’s planning and infrastructure agenda – the recently announced 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy includes ‘place-based’ business cases, which represent a more holistic and spatial approach to development. Such an approach towards place accords with the Government’s Plan for Neighbourhoods. It meets needs and aims locally, as evidenced by a Local Government Association report, a key recommendation of which is that “place leaders should work together, be bold and act now to progress place-based approaches to growth and public service reform.”
A devolved system that works for rural England
85% of England’s land area is classified as rural, with 17% of the country’s population living in these areas. Rural areas have specific challenges and requirements, and we need to ensure that these communities get the fair representation, strategic investment, and support needed to thrive. Whilst we agree that drawing provisions from the Greater London Act is the right approach, the Bill needs to go further in ensuring that measures aren’t urban-centric and different contexts across the country are considered. To address this, we are proposing provisions to allow for a rural affairs commissioner. To do so, an additional area of competence should be added to Clause 2, to allow for a rural affairs commissioner to be appointed where deemed appropriate.
Facilitate regional cooperation
The mayoral duty to collaborate in Clause 22 of the Bill allows for mayors of neighbouring strategic authorities to make and respond to requests for collaboration. This collaboration should relate to an area of competence, and should benefit the “economic, social or environmental wellbeing” of residents. We support the intention for collaboration across strategic authorities to tackle cross-boundary issues, however, in its current form, we believe the criteria for such collaboration requires further detail in order to be effectively evidenced and operationalised.
To this end, the RTPI would like to reiterate the need for the inclusion of a National Spatial Framework in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. This would act as an overarching framework to align and coordinate strategies and plans across sectors at a national scale, accounting for planning’s unique cross-sectoral position and its ability to act as a coordinator. With the Government recognising the importance of such an approach, particularly within the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, which sets out the intention to produce national spatial priorities and also sets out the role of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), supported by the new national infrastructure spatial tool, as well as place-based business cases. Therefore, this provision can be strengthened through compelling authorities to have regard to the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy when requesting collaboration.
Empowering the voice of communities
The Bill sets out in Clause 58 a requirement for local government to establish new neighbourhood governance structures. These structures intend to bring communities closer to decision-making. Reasserting our support for a place-based approach, we believe that these structures should encourage communities to build visions and strategies for the long-term development of their areas, moving beyond a sole focus on public service delivery.
To achieve this there should be a clear legislative link between proposed neighbourhood governance structures and the preparation of local plans and spatial development strategies. We note with concern the removal of funding towards neighbourhood plans and therefore we encourage the Government to take the opportunity to better frontload community engagement in a plan-led system. RTPI commissioned research suggests innovative techniques such as citizen assemblies, which can be used to facilitate in-depth participation further along in the preparation process of SDSs.
Setting the system up to succeed
The devolution agenda ushers in an era of more planning, not less, and to deliver this we need more entrants into the workforce. This will be particularly pertinent through the transition period. However, this is at a time when our pipeline is being jeopardised, and an injection of resources is needed to ensure continuity within the system.
The RTPI is concerned about the ramifications of the change in funding for Level 7 apprenticeships on the supply of much-needed resource into the planning sector through the Chartered Town Planner Level 7 apprenticeship. As set out in our letter to the Housing Minister, the sector is facing a potential loss of 200 planners a year through these changes. We need a reversal of the Level 7 changes for the Chartered Town Planner Level 7 apprenticeship, or a capital investment of £6.8 million, over the remainder of this Parliament, to support Planning Schools to recruit and train 400 planners, whilst an alternative programme is developed to fill the gap created by the funding restrictions.
The expected increase in workloads can be demonstrated by the PIB Impact Assessment, which estimates that the preparation of SDSs would require a total of 150-175 extra planners across a range of experience levels. Alongside this, new Mayoral Development Corporations (MDCs) will need to recruit planners. It is unclear yet whether New Towns could make use of MDCs, but even if they utilise a different mechanism, the creation of development corporations will increase the overall demand on the number of planners.
More broadly we remain concerned about local government financing and the RTPI strongly warns of the harms of the possible net reduction in planners due to amalgamation of planning teams through unitarisation.
For a stable and effective planning system that delivers the smart growth needed at a local and strategic level, the RTPI wants the Government to set out the exact expected need for planners over the next 10 years to deliver devolution and planning reforms, and detail as to how the system will be provided with these workforce numbers. This can only be achieved through the preparation of a long-term workforce strategy.
Contact:
The RTPI is happy to support MPs and their offices throughout the passage of the Bill. If you would like to discuss any of the above or have questions around planning reform, please get in touch publicaffairs@rtpi.org.uk