NATIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK:
STAKEHOLDER SEMINARS
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The first round of seminars was about identifying the issues that the National Planning Framework might address. The second round is about getting views on whether we have identified the right issues, whether we have expressed them correctly and, most important of all, what you expect the NPF should say about different areas.
NPF is not about local issues. It will be essential that it does not stray into matters which are really for councils, the enterprise network or other local agencies.
Background and Process
We announced our decision to draw up a National Planning Framework in the conclusions to the Review of Strategic Planning in June 2002. The Review of Strategic Planning was essentially about the statutory development plan system but the need to develop a long term view of how Scotland would develop as a place emerged very strongly.
Over the autumn months last year, we held a series of stakeholder seminars in different parts of Scotland as well as bilateral meetings with a wide range of public and private sector interests.
We made a presentation to the Transport and the Environment Committee in March this year and there is an Ad Hoc Ministerial Group set up to oversee the preparation of the Framework. This met last October and March this year.
Outcomes from the seminars and meetings
First of all there is strong support for the idea of a Framework. Stakeholders are looking for a vision but they are looking for a document that has a hard edge.
There have been a number of positive comments about the inclusive approach we have adopted to drawing up the Framework and the approach has helped stakeholders recognise the difficulties involved in the exercise as well as sensitivities.
The all Scotland focus is seen as absolutely essential. It is clear that stakeholders do not want this to be just about the central belt although that is where almost two-thirds of Scotland's population live.
Looking at the seminars and meetings overall, there are 2 themes that have consistently come through.
The first of these is improving connectivity - and that is connectivity in its broadest sense. The second is environmental quality. Maintaining and enhancing our best environments and addressing the problems of run down or degraded areas.
The seminars have also raised questions about balanced regional development.
Scotland does not have a particularly balanced settlement structure compared with say Denmark or Germany. On the contrary, almost two-thirds of the population is concentrated in the central belt, over a quarter in our 4 cities and there are large parts of the country which are very sparsely populated indeed. The distribution of settlements in Scotland is probably more akin to Norway and Sweden.
But one of the big issues coming up was the contrast between the booming economy in Edinburgh and the Lothians with more sluggish performance elsewhere. So a key issue is how can the NPF help these other areas fulfil their potential while at the same time continuing to support prosperity in and around Edinburgh? On a different scale similar issues have come up in the seminars in Aberdeen and Inverness about the strength of these regional centres in relation to the rest of the north east and the Highlands and Islands respectively.
The role of the National Planning Framework in supporting economic development has come out very strongly. As the Partnership Agreement indicates growing the economy is the Executive's top priority. It must be recognised that growth in the labour force is likely to be relatively limited and that the majority of business locations are already identified. There will be specific requirements to which we have to respond but the starting point is not a requirement to identify major new areas for economic development.
Diversity has to be recognised. There is no common starting point across Scotland and areas will change in different ways and at a different pace. What provided the foundation of prosperity in the past may not do so in the future and new forms of economic activity will have to be embraced. Shipbuilding and marine engineering formed the basis of the economy of Inverclyde but the future may well be based on leisure. In the Highlands opportunities are clearly opening up in the renewables field while the terrain offers tremendous opportunities for developing businesses around extreme sports.
Land supply is less important than location. It is not just the availability of a serviced site that will attract businesses and people. It is about quality of life that a particular place can offer. In the excitement or despondency about globalisation and the new economy we have perhaps lost sight of the enduring importance of place. And place is what the NPF is about.
The focus of the framework should, we believe, be about physical capital and infrastructure to ensure that places can compete both domestically and internationally. Locations are unequal and that what we have to do is prioritise between them. We understand that Scottish Enterprise thinking is developing very much along these lines.
But rural Scotland is different. The role of the NPF is not really about identifying the big choices between areas. Rather it is about ensuring that there is a positive approach to development in rural areas. Over most of rural Scotland this positive framework is, in fact, in place although there are criticisms along the lines that planning has continued the work of the clearances. There are certainly tensions on the housing front but this is not the case in relation to bona fide proposals for economic development and some of the constraints, for example in relation to the supply for affordable housing, are not driven by the planning system.
Transport has come up as one of the major issues for the National Planning Framework. We do not start with a blank sheet of paper and commitments have been entered into which will account for a large proportion of the transport budget for the next 10 years.
These include the rail links to Edinburgh and Glasgow airports. The new re-opened railway lines to Airdrie and Bathgate, Kincardine/Alloa/Stirling, and Larkhall/Milngavie. There is a commitment to supporting the construction of the Borders Rail Link and the Edinburgh Tram Network as well as completing the central Scotland motorway network and, of course, the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road. The Partnership Agreement also commits the Executive to expanding the Rural Transport Initiative.
External links are important. Scotland's exports amount to over 27billion annually. If Scotland is struggling in the international marketplace then we have to look at ways of improving our connectivity. And if we are successful in the global economy then we have to support that success. So whatever the scenario, there are issues about air links, the role of gateway ports not just to and from Europe but also to Ireland, Euro-routes and as well as making use of the deep water facilities at Scapa Flow and Hunterston. A recent development has been the introduction of a ferry service that links Shetland, Orkney, Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
As for internal links, there has been a lot of talk about Glasgow Cross Rail as a means of improving connections from Inverclyde, Ayrshire and the South West to the east of Scotland and reducing journey times to/from the north through the Dundee and Aberdeen Cross Rail schemes.
Sustainable transport investment is of course seen as fundamental. This has implications for the location of new development, how sustainability should be reflected in the modal share of new investment in transport infrastructure (by 2006 expenditure on transport will have reached 1 billion, 70% of which will be on public transport) and there are particular issues surrounding freight. The UK Marine Motorways Study identified a number of links, including Aberdeen - Thames, Forth - Thames and Tees and Clyde - Mersey as potential ferry routes. The Sustainable Freight Facilities Study recommends the establishment of 6 strategic freight interchanges serving Aberdeen, Dundee, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness areas
Other issues raised with us include water and drainage and renewable energy.
We are aware of the scale of planned investment in water and drainage to 2006 and it is clear much to the frustration of councils and the development industry that servicing has a low priority in all this. We have not made as much progress as we would have liked on mapping the constraints but it is fairly clear that they have a distinctive geography. There is feeling that the NPF could, through the Q & S 3 process, play an important role in setting priorities for infrastructure investment for 2006-2014. But we do need to think long term in this area as there is potentially a long lead in time for securing consent to controversial projects. Some investments are essential and some are standalone. Others are not. An example might be the situation on the east side of the Glasgow Conurbation where the completion of the M74 will open up development opportunities but there are major concerns relating to land and multiple ownership, contaminated, vacant and derelict land plus a concentration of Scotland's poorest households. On top of this we have become aware of problems over water and drainage as well as flooding. It is important that investment in this area is co-ordinated.
The next item is renewable energy. There is a commitment to generate 40% of Scotland's energy by renewable means by 2020. NPPG6 sets out the planning policy approach but there are understandable pressures on us to address the spatial implications. It would be relatively straightforward to map environmental and other constraints and these are potentially quite significant with over a quarter of Scotland's land area covered by natural heritage designations. But a more appropriate approach might be to identify the relationship between the renewable resource and the priorities for investment in new or upgraded grid capacity.
Two other issues which have come up are broadband and waste. Lack of coverage of broadband has been raised as an issue frustrating economic development, particularly in rural areas. Last year Connecting Scotland Our Broadband Future was published. This gave a commitment to extend ADSL equivalent broadband services to 70% of the population by 2004. And there are a wide range of projects underway to stimulate demand in rural areas and explore the use of different technologies.
Waste - there is an EU requirement to reduce biodegradable municipal waste by 65% by 2020. Over two-thirds of existing landfill sites should be closed by 2006. Recycling targets have been set in National Waste Plan and a network of waste management facilities is required. The NPF has a role in supporting sustainable locations for new/improved facilities.
Affordable Housing - demographic change will increase importance of an efficient labour market to economic performance. The location of labour supply is determined in part by availability of suitable housing. The requirement for affordable housing varies across Scotland and there are issues surrounding quality and quantity. There may be a role for the NPF in identifying shortfalls.
Options for Sub-National Planning Framework
In the Review of Strategic Planning we identified the possible need for sub-national planning frameworks in locations where planning issues of national significance is raised and the West Edinburgh Planning Framework which was drawn up in 12 months was an early sign of that approach. We have had approaches about other areas for sub-national planning framework but we need to be convinced that there are genuine national issues at stake. It is not the Executive's job to prepare regional or local planning strategies. So your views on possible areas - urban or rural - for this approach would be very welcome. It would be important to recognise, though, that this will not just involve the Executive coming in with large amounts of pubic money. In some areas the private sector will find the proposition attractive so that delivery mechanisms therefore have to respect local conditions.
Process
We are discussing with new Ministers how we should take forward and complete the Framework as well as looking at how Parliament should be involved. We have also commissioned work on a strategic environment assessment. There are also issues surrounding the status of the framework. I know there are pressures to make the framework statutory but that is not an option if we are to publish this year. Our priority is to make the NPF purposeful rather than statutory.
Conclusion
I would find it helpful if we got a degree of consensus on whether we have identified the issues correctly. I would also be interested in your views on what the NPF should be saying about these issues in general and what you would expect us to say about the future of your area.
Having set out the framework we then have to move to delivery. The NPF is not about things happening tomorrow. It is probably not about changes before 2010. Key investment decisions have already been made. The NPF is asking questions about the best long-term options for Scotland in terms of development, regeneration and infrastructure provision. Some issues will need to be taken forward through the development plan system, others will need to be taken forward through spending review and I have already mentioned the importance of the Q and S3 process for Scottish Water's spending priorities.
The National Planning Framework is not meant to be set in stone. Our view, as officials, is that the document should evolve and some issues on which we are quite tentative might become firmer in Mark 2. We might also tackle additional subjects in Mark2, for example the marine environment. Also we do not see the NPF being updated annually or even biannually. Instead it might be a document that the Executive presents to a new parliamentary session.