MPs warn serious shortage of planners threatens policies

Key Government targets for house-building and regeneration are seriously under threat because of the shortage of planners, Parliament has warned.

That warning came from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee in a report which highlighted concern that by 2012 some 46 per cent of planning posts in local planning departments could be unfilled and that those planners who remained in the system would increasingly have a skills gap.

The report talked of an economy blighted by an under-performing planning system and at risk of "paralysis or chaotic and under-regulated growth".

Chair of the Commons committee Dr Phyllis Starkey said: "When we began this inquiry we intended to look at the skills shortage in modern planning departments but we quickly discovered the problem went further and that there was a shortage of planners themselves."

She added: "What is perhaps most surprising, and frustrating, is the fact that these shortages have been in evidence for well over a decade but despite numerous reviews nothing has been done."

The report made a number of recommendations. These included calls for a more flexible attitude to salaries and the ages at which planners can be considered for promotion, the establishment of conversion courses for mid-life professionals who may wish to switch careers to planning and a big drive to promote planning as a career.

The all-party group of MPs also argued that the status of planning in local authorities needed to be raised. The committee urged the Government to reconsider its rejection of Kate Barker's proposal that the chief planning officer should be a statutorily protected senior local government post.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: "Our over-complex and unresponsive planning system costs businesses and the tax-payer millions and is putting regeneration and economic growth at risk."

She added: "One of the principal problems is the lack of suitably trained and experienced planning officers; it needs to be tackled by serious investment in planning as a career for graduates and a recognition of the skills needed to make the whole system run efficiently."

Sue Percy, the Royal Town Planning Institute's director of education and lifelong learning, agreed. She said: "The committee was right to identify the need to raise the general status of planning within local government. The failure by many local authorities to have a professionally qualified planner at executive director level has had an enormously deleterious effect on the profession in the public sector.

"It has diminished the visibility and voice of planners within the local decision making process and limited the career progression opportunities for those planners in middle management roles."
 
A Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: "We have taken significant action to boost planning skills including funding 513 bursaries for students to train as planners with over 300 more to follow.

"Since 2003 we have provided £605m Planning Delivery Grant to local authorities and increased planning fees so they can invest in training and staff. Our new £510m Housing and Planning Delivery Grant for the next three years will continue this incentive and ensure the planning system provides suitable land to help the housebuilding industry rapidly recover from the current economic challenges.

"We have also appointed a new Chief Planner (at CLG) who will take a leading role in championing the profession. We will look at these recommendations carefully before responding in detail."

Read the Communities and Local Government Select Committee report.

Roger Milne

24 July 2008