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A collaborative cross-sector approach was
employed to draw up draft planning guidance that
would transform the system’s ability to meet the
challenge of tackling climate change, with the aim of
persuading the Government to put climate change at
the heart of the English planning system. Comment
and compromise were encouraged, in order to
achieve a consensus among the members of the
PCCC on the benefits of a new climate change PPS.
Developing a common policy position
Following two policy meetings held in July and
September 2009, and with the benefit of extensive
feedback from around 100 stakeholders, the PCCC –
working with no core funding, and with no political
or corporate affiliations – developed a Position
Statement 1 setting out principles for the Government
to adopt in an updated climate change PPS. The
Position Statement was launched in the House of
Commons at the end of October 2009, where the
launch meeting was addressed by the then Housing
and Planning Minister, John Healey MP.
Detailed solutions were put forward to ensure
that the planning system played its part in slashing
carbon dioxide emissions and meeting the targets
set out in the Climate Change Act. The Position
Statement proposed that a new climate PPS must
be informed by the following principles:
● a restatement of the importance of sustainable
development as the key objective for the planning
system;
● a strong commitment to the plan-led system,
which can produce certainty and transparency for
all sectors;
● a commitment to make climate change a vital
factor in all planning decision-making;
● a strong commitment to environmental justice
and open, transparent and participative decisionmaking;
● a recognition of the importance of adaptation and
the need to integrate mitigation and adaptation
solutions;
● the creation of a new technical advice body to
ensure the integration of data sets,
methodologies and target regimes; and
● the introduction of a new energy paradigm which
requires holistic and positive approaches to
minimising energy demand and to large-scale,
community level and micro-renewables energy
opportunities.
Coalition principles adopted
The Position Statement proved to be very
influential and laid the foundation for a new draft
Government policy, set out in a draft climate change
PPS unveiled for consultation by officials from DCLG
at a meeting of the PCCC in March 2010. 2 The draft
PPS combined and updated existing PPSs on climate
change (Supplement to PPS1) and renewable energy
(PPS22), and set out how planning should be used in
mitigating climate change and adapting to its impacts.
This policy was one the most dramatic and significant
steps forward in the development of spatial planning
as a tool for tackling the climate change agenda.
Adapting to changing politics
Notwithstanding the success of the PCCC’s
Position Statement in influencing policy, the election
of a new Coalition Government in May 2010 led to
an immediate transformation of the policy window,
setting the PCCC a new challenge.
The Coalition Government embarked on a radical
shift of responsibility to the local authority and
community level, and set out its intention to abolish
national and regional planning guidance through the
Localism Bill, subsequently published in November
2010. 6 It announced that national planning policies,
including PPS1 and PPS22, were to be streamlined
and consolidated in a National Planning Policy
Framework (NPPF), while Regional Strategies were
to be revoked and regional evidence-gathering
ended. While there was uncertainty about how the
new planning framework would operate, the PCCC
felt that this could not be allowed to delay action on
climate change.
Initially, the PCCC had directed its efforts at
influencing the new climate PPS and the UK
Renewable Energy Strategy, and producing guidance
with the regional scale of delivery in mind. However,
with the change in government after the general
election and the abolition of regional planning, it had
to switch its focus to the local authority scale.
Adapting to this change, a new consensus was
formed at a meeting of the PCCC in September
2010, which agreed to this change of direction, and
the PCCC set about producing and publishing draft
climate planning policy standards, removing the
regional element, so that local authorities could
adopt them if they wanted to (reflecting a shift in
governance paradigm). It was important that the
PCCC was able to adapt to these changing
circumstances in order to sustain its influence.
The resulting Guidance and Model Polices for
Local Authorities, 3 based on the widely supported
draft climate change PPS, was launched at the
House of Commons in November 2010. The
Guidance was designed primarily for local authorities
and Local Enterprise Partnerships seeking to tackle
climate change and bring about a low-carbon future
– and reap the benefits that renewable energy and
effective adaptation can bring.
The model policies were developed through
cross-sector dialogue, drawing on the wide-ranging
expertise of the PCCC partners. The Guidance gives
detailed advice on the principles that should
underpin plan-making and development
management, and is intended to provide a basis for
comprehensive policy in the new, community-based
Town & Country Planning June 2011 : GRaBS Project – INTERREG IVC; ERDF-funded 275