Spatial plans and priorities for growth
Bob Pritchard assesses the role of spatial plans in helping ‘get Britain building again’.
The recent local elections highlighted the popularity of the incumbent metro mayors.
All of the Labour mayors who were up for re-election were successful. Tees Valley Conservative, Ben Houchen, managed to win his third term and Andy Street narrowly missed out on a third term in the West Midlands.
Looking ahead, both main political parties have indicated their continued support for devolution in England. In Power and Partnership: Labour’s Plan to Power up Britain, it promises that under a future Labour administration, mayors will have "stronger powers over planning and departmental style settlements for housing powers".
This was also reaffirmed during Angela Rayner’s speech at UKREiiF 2024, where she stated: “As Secretary of State, I will empower our regional and local leaders to deliver, as Labour councils and the mayor do here in West Yorkshire.”
On the other side of the political divide, the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 marks the continuation of the devolution journey that started in earnest back in 2010.
The government is currently consulting on draft regulations governing the oversight by local authorities of locally-led Urban Development Corporations, with proposals to update the New Towns Act 1981 (Local Authority Oversight) Regulations 2018.
While the focus of devolution to date has been to empower the city regions, the emphasis is now on ensuring that development corporations can be used to “unlock strategic development in all parts of England”.
The consultation proposals highlight an interesting issue. They refer to the role of development corporations in areas that need large-scale co-ordination of investment and planning and the benefits of them having a “clear geographical focus”.
This begs the question, just who decides where that investment is going to be most effective and how will that “clear geographical focus” be established?
Localism would suggest that this should be left to the local authorities hosting the development corporation. However, if there is a disconnect between local aspirations and central government priorities, and associated funding, any attempted intervention is unlikely to result in a ‘step change’ in the economic fortunes of an area.
One potential way of avoiding a good deal of wasted time and resources is for the government to clearly set out national and regional priorities for growth in spatial plans, so that the devolved authorities can focus on projects that are most likely to attract funding and have the best chance of boosting productivity. There is an example of this approach close to home, with Wales opting to promote a national spatial strategy.
Future Wales provides a national development framework and sets the direction for Strategic Development Plans at regional level, together with Local Development Plans at local authority level. While it can be criticised for including policies that are expressed at a high level of generality, it does steer plan makers in Wales with a positive blueprint for growth.
The lack of a spatial focus can be seen as one of the many contributing factors to the failings in the government’s flagship ‘levelling up’ agenda.
In March 2024, the Public Accounts Committee considered the progress of the Levelling Up Fund, Towns Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, together totalling up to £10.47bn.
The Committee concluded that only 10 per cent of funding promised as part of the levelling up agenda has been spent.
On average, a bid for funds costs a local authority around £30,000. The Committee noted that rules for accessing funding changed while bids were still being assessed. This was not communicated in advance to local authorities that ended up bidding under changed rules, with little chance of success.
The Committee also concluded that "more impactful" bids were losing out to “shovel-ready” projects - 85% of which had to extend deadlines. It found that ministers were "unable to provide any compelling examples of what levelling up funding has delivered so far".
'Levelling up' has been absent from recent Labour communications, with the party instead promising to 'get Britain building again'. A long-term national spatial plan will be key to this vision and the broader aim of rebalancing the economy and delivering lasting prosperity.
Bob Pritchard is a specialist planning lawyer at Shoosmiths.
