Planning for Housing in Bavaria and Scotland
7. Conclusion
In the context of the Cooperation Agreement the Executive's Planning Division and the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior have been comparing our approaches to land use planning, focussing on the quality aspects of planning for housing developments. We have learned much from this project and will continue to work together so that both administrations derive benefit from the exchange of experience.
Key activities to date
- Hugh Henry, when he was Deputy Minister responsible for planning, visited Bavaria in 2002.
- The Scottish Executive's Planning Advice Note on Housing Quality, published in 2003, highlights good practice examples from Bavaria.
- The Scottish Executive led a study tour of planning stakeholders to Bavaria in March 2004. The group comprised house builders, architects and local authorities in their roles as planning authority, housing authority and developer. All found it a useful source of new ideas.
- An architect-planner (Caroline Blum) was seconded from the Bavarian Ministry to the Scottish Executive in April.
- Bavarian colleagues gave presentations on their system to Scottish Heads of Planning in June 2004. This was very well received.
- In September 2004 Margaret Curran, Minister for Communities, visited Bavaria. This allowed her to reflect with her Bavarian Ministerial counterpart, Dr Günther Beckstein, on the lessons learned from our comparative study, to see relevant developments in person and to reinforce the value of the cooperation.
Proposed further action
- Discussion is under way on areas for further joint study.
- Arrangements are in hand for another secondee to come from Bavaria in November.
- A member of Planning Division is likely to be seconded to Bavaria next spring.
- The Bavarian Ministry has offered the Scottish Executive a loan of its exhibition on settlement models, i.e. experimental work in housing design promoted by the Ministry.
We look forward to continuing to work together in the future.