COMMENT Despite the dropping of the Planning Bill, the government has an ideal opportunity to make good its planning promises through meaningful investments in digitisation and technology.
Rumours that the bill had been scrapped were realised when it was announced in the Queen’s Speech that the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill had absorbed the nation’s planning reform policy.
While we can all lament the passing of the stand-alone Planning Bill and its ambitions, there are still ample opportunities for impactful reform that can be carried forward in the levelling-up agenda. In fact, one element of the original bill is now better positioned to be realised in the coming legislative session – digitisation.
Sheffield steals the show
While zonal reforms drowned the original bill in controversy and delay, its digitisation reforms were seen widely by both the government and the public as a step in the right direction.
Ranging from the transformation of the planning system “from a slow document-based one to a more efficient and easier to use digital and map-based service” to a digital system that makes it “more visual and easier for local people to meaningfully engage with”, real change was on the table.
Some detractors may complain about potentially missed opportunities from policy vacuum caused by the absence of the Planning Bill. But this has not been the case in key parts of the country.
With the right allocation of levelling-up funding, the government can still deliver the UK’s key digitisation reforms and drive us headfirst into a planning “golden age” – without controversial elements holding it back. A perfect example of this can be seen in Sheffield, whose city council embraced digitisation in planning. The implementation of a “digital twin” in Sheffield’s planning systems has helped deliver flagship regeneration projects such as Heart of the City, The Moor and Castlegate. It’s also helped garner significant funding from local universities and global industry leaders such as Boeing and McLaren to expand its services and build on its rapid success.
Most importantly, however, the city’s digital shift has made it a centrepiece of the government’s Northern Powerhouse vision – just one facet of its general levelling-up agenda. By taking the initiative and investing early in technological advances in planning, Sheffield has found itself becoming a cornerstone of digital regeneration in the UK, reasserting the city as one of the main drivers of economic growth in the North.
Digital future
This has made one thing perfectly clear – the government’s plan to level up simply doesn’t happen without digitisation. So while we may not have got the Planning Bill we wished for, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill is perfectly positioned to give Britain the kick-start it needs to take it into a digital future.
The absorption of the Planning Bill’s agenda into the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill has given it a renewed significance – and with digitisation at its helm, it could be the government’s best opportunity yet to deliver meaningful, positive change.
Therefore, success lies in proper funding and resources. With the benefits of digitisation already becoming apparent across the country – not just in planning – it is vital that the government doubles down on appropriate allocation of public funds.
When it comes to revolutionising our planning system, if it doesn’t involve digitisation, it’s not the future.
Jamie Holmes is chief executive of Vu.City
