Local Planning Authorities - Essay Example

198174 Using examples, explain the extent to which local planning ities can and do meet the requirements for producing locally distinct plans that satisfy both local communities and central government. The following will discuss as well as explaining the extent to which local planning authorities are able and willing to meet the requirements for producing locally distinct plans that satisfy both local communities and the central government. Local planning authorities have not always existed to co-ordinate town and country planning in Britain. Indeed prior to the establishment of these authorities there was not a specific system of urban and rural planning to determine the location of construction projects or the use of development and regeneration land. Market forces determined the use of land and what if anything was built upon it rather than the wishes of local communities and the central government. If landowners found that their land was most profitably used for agricultural purposes then it would remain as agricultural land, if it made the more money being used for residential or retail properties it would serve such purposes.1 The forerunners of local planning authorities began to emerge with the Town and Country Planning Act of 1925, despite the majority of planning decisions usually being left to individual local authorities to be enforced. The usefulness of the early local planning authorities was restricted by the harsher economic conditions that dominated much of the inter-war period. The active use of town and country planning by the equivalent of local planning authorities was thus limited in use except by local authority building council houses.2 Local planning authorities began to come into their own with the expansion of council house construction, local communities wanted more housing and central government decided it also wanted greater levels of social housing nationally. Council housing schemes were not a post-war innovation, as they had originally began in the 1920s. However council house construction due to a shortage of public funds had been restricted. After 1945 the Atlee government sanctioned and funded the building of millions of council houses as a vital component of post-war reconstruction, that also increased the availability of socially provided affordable housing.3 The era of post-war reconstruction was the raison d’être for the largest programmes of publicly funded construction in Britain, and the extensive use of local planning authorities to complete those projects. Unprecedented levels of public expenditure were needed due to the sheer scale of reconstruction required as a consequence of wartime bomb damage. Town planning and local planning authorities were used for these large-scale construction programmes, rather than just for individual buildings as had previously usually been the case. The unusually high levels involvement by the central government in the active promoting and funding of large-scale public building programmes to meet the demands of local communities remained pronounced until the early part of the 1970s.4 One example of the role of local planning authorities in balancing the needs of local communities and the policies of central government was the construction of new towns. The new towns constructed in post-war Britain were designed to reduce housing shortages in other cities like London, Birmingham, and Manchester. Local planning authorities in London had more new towns built than any other city in Britain, including the new towns such as Croydon, and Milton Keynes. New towns for a time meant that local planning authorities and local authorities were able to meet the demand within local communities for affordable social housing, paid for by the central government as well as local ratepayers. The new towns helped local planning authorities to adequately house all local communities without using up greenbelt land.5 Through the use of local planning authorities there was a tightly controlled expansion of urban areas into the new towns. An expansion that was intended to solve the immediate post-war housing shortage and revive the British economy, whilst leaving the great bulk of the countryside untouched by new housing construction. Urban planning via local planning authorities was ushered in with the belief “that the state play a much more active, interventionist role in society”.6 The central government tasked local planning authorities with the setting aside of areas that were designated as green belt zones to preserve the countryside nationally to protect the quality of life for local communities in rural areas. Although, it was possible to build on green belt land the process of gaining planning permission from central government and the relevant local planning authority could be a long drawn out one which deterred most estate agencies and construction firms from doing so. Local interest groups and community representatives have often being highly vocal in their opposition to any schemes that have planned for construction on greenbelt sites.7 The neo-liberal perspective towards residential and retail property markets and construction was certainly the dominant approach in Britain prior to end of the Second World War. Neo-liberal concepts arguably became dominant again as a result of the social, economic and also the housing policies pursued by the Thatcher government during the 1980s. Thatcherism was used to argue for a reduction in the efforts of local planning authorities to please local communities whilst carrying out the tasks legally required of them by the central government.8 The New Labour government wished to increase the amount of affordable housing programmes built for local communities on behalf of local authorities and approved by local planning authorities. New Labour knew that it would certainly not be able to replace the two million or so council houses sold nationally under the auspices of the right to buy scheme.9 Whilst the supply of new or renovated houses will chiefly be decided by private sector property developers, local planning authorities have set targets for the building of affordable housing.10 There were groups within local communities that wished to conserve specific areas that supported rare forms of animal and plant life, and other local communities that wished to preserve old historical buildings, which led to the central government tasking local planning authorities preserving parts of both rural and urban areas.11 To appease environmental pressure groups as well as local communities, the central government and local planning authorities have insisted that construction projects have to adhere to concepts linked with sustainable architecture and ecological protection.12 Central government and local authorities would, in any case, want any new construction programmes to use as much renewable, recycled and biodegradable materials as possible to meet the pollution cutting targets set by the European Union.13 The European Union has generally set tougher targets to reduce pollution and promote environmental sustainability than the governments of its member states have done. Local planning authorities are given key responsiblities by the central government to achieve those standards.14 Therefore, the British government has attempted to increase their over all levels environmental sustainability to meet European Union targets through changing the roles given to local planning authorities.15 Local planning authorities can help to achieve targets set by the central government and the European Union by embracing sustainable architecture methods, greener technology and the recycling of materials when constructing new building programmes for local communities throughout Britain.16 The New Labour government has taken a strong interest in promoting ecological sustainability which local planning authorities are encouraged to incorporate into the building designs of projects that they have provided with full planning permission. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would certainly be enhanced if new construction projects used renewable and recyclable materials, in conjunction with sustainable designs that reduce the amount of material used in construction and resources needed from local communities and also from the central government.17 Bibliography Clapp B W, (1994) An Environmental History of Britain from the Industrial Revolution, Longman, London Greed C, (1996) Investigating Town Planning, Longman, London Meller H, (1997) Town, plans and society in modern Britain, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Moran M, (2005) Politic and Governance in the UK, Palgrave, Basingstoke Rydin Y, (2003) Urban and Environmental Planning in the UK, Palgrave, Basingstoke Southall A, (2000) The City – In Time and Space, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Taylor N, (1998) Urban Planning Theory since 1945, Sage Publications, London Read More