18 th ANNUAL BRISTOL PLANNING LAW AND POLICY

18 th ANNUAL BRISTOL PLANNING LAW AND POLICY CONFERENCE 16 November 2017 1947 – 2017 what have we learned about the art and science of Town and Country Planning? Louis Hellman David Lock CBE MRTPI Strategic Planning Adviser & Founder, David Lock Associates Board Member and Chair of Planning Committee, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation Vice President and former Chair, TCPA

WHY IT HAPPENED

Professor Sir Patrick Geddes Intellectual behemoth

Social City in Tomorrow – the peaceful path to real reform 1898 E Howard OU 1973

“Go Up and Possess the Land!” – Howard’s diagram in Tomorrow- the Peaceful Path to Real Reform private edition 1898, omitted from 1899 commercial publication (from To-Morrow, Hall and Ward)

RIBBON DEVELOPMENT …and the planned development speculators

The nursery book dream (Kate Greenaway)

London – Blitz, Christmas 1940

Cities of Tomorrow Peter Hall 1988

THE FOUR FOUNDATION STONES • The Barlow Commission (1940) into the distribution of industrial population • The Scott Committee into rural land use (1941) • The Uthwatt Committee into compensation and betterment (1942) • The Reith Committee report on New Towns (1946)

LANDSLIDE LABOUR GOVERNMENT 1945

WHAT HAPPENED New Towns Act 1946

What the cartoonist thought planners looked like, and what they did, in 1946

Central Milton Keynes IMAGE

TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING BILL HC Deb 29 January 1947 vol 432 cc 947 -1075 Order for Second Reading read. 3. 40 p. m. The Minister of Town and Country Planning (Mr. Silkin) I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time. " “This Bill has been described as the most important for a century. I should not go as far as that, but I do say that it is the most comprehensive and far reaching planning Measure which has ever been placed before this House. I am very conscious of the great responsibility which falls on me in introducing a Bill of this magnitude and historic character…. .

KEY FEATURES OF THE 1947 ACT NATIONALISATION OF DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS REQUIRING PERMISSION TO BE OBTAINED, WITH RIGHTS OF APPEAL DEVELOPMENT CHARGE ON RAISED LAND VALUES (abolished by Conservative Government in 1954) COMPENSATION FOR REDUCED LAND VALUES LOCAL AUTHORITIES REQUIRED TO MAKE PLANNING SCHEMES …AND EMPOWERED TO UNDERTAKE DIRECT DEVELOPMENT …AND USE POWERS OF COMPULSORY PURCHASE OF LAND AT EXISTING USE VALUE …AND CONTROL OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISING …AND POWERS TO PROTECT TREES AND WOODLAND …AND POWERS TO PROTECT IMPORTANT ARCHITECTURAL OR HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND ANCIENT MONUMENTS Green belt legislation followed in 1955 Full time planning education followed Schuster Report 1965 Skeffington Report on Public Participation 1969 Planning Aid 1973

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT • • • 1, 400 LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITIES TOO SLOW AND INWARD LOOKING DEVELOPMENT CHARGE ABOLISHED – “planning gain” instead COMPENSATION WITHERED UNDER “HOPE VALUE” CASE LAW PUBLIC HOUSING PROGRAMMES TURNED INTO SLUMS OF THE FUTURE, THEN: LOCAL GOVERNMENT REORGANISATION 1973 (but half cocked – not 100% Unitary Councils as proposed by Redcliffe Maud/Derek Senior) COUNTY STRUCTURE PLANS TOO SLOW; THEN RPG AND RSS but became seen as the problem not the solution DELIBERATE UNDERPLANNING OF HOUSING TRANSPORT PLANNING IN A SILO; CASE LAW AND PRECEDENT INFECT THE PLANNING SYSTEM; PLANNING SYSTEM MADE TO PAY FOR ITSELF AND NEGOTIATE MONEY FOR SUBSIDISED HOUSING; BUT MOST DRAMATIC: • THE RUN DOWN OF THE CAPABILITY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT; AND • THE MARGINALISATION OF PLANNERS IN GOVERNMENT

Cartoon by Louise Hellman from A Broken Wave, Lionel Esher, 1981

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ? …. ABOUT MAKING NEW TOWNS

Since 1947 we have produced 32 new towns in the UK, home to over two million people, with the costs repaid with interest to the taxpayer. The key lessons from the programme have been: 1. Large scale mixed use development for 30, 000 - 250, 000 people is more than can be managed by the private sector alone. 2. The task is multi-faceted - social, economic and environmental development - and takes several decades (contrast with UDCs). 3. The development task should be driven by a public corporation answerable to Parliament. 4. Land should be capable of being acquired at existing use value. 5. Funding is needed in high volumes and time must be allowed for repayment (several decades for larger New Towns). 6. Annual budgetary control rather than individual project control is required at the operational level (contrast with UDCs). 7. Key stakeholders (especially local authorities) need to be engaged as partners. 8. The gathering population needs to be engaged in the ongoing development processes. 9. Arrangements must be made for long term stewardship. 10. Citizenship must be cultivated. 11. Towns must have a stop.

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ? …. ABOUT TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING GENERALLY?

The New Towns Act 1946 and the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 were both wise and revolutionary Control of land use is popular Local development control is popular A fair share of rising land values should be collected for community use Longer term bigger plans need to be made Public consultation is not public participation The planning service is not a commercial business AND WE MUST REVERSE THE PRESENT CONDITION BY: RESTORING THE CAPABILITY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT; and REVITALISE THE ROLE OF PLANNERS IN GOVERNMENT

Will Cousins & Steve Peart, David Lock Associates After Kate Greenaway

IMAGINE Greater Bristol 2050, High in Hope, for John Savage, West of England Initiative (David Lock Associates) dlock@davidlock. com 50 North Thirteenth St, Central Milton Keynes, MK 9 3 BP, UK