The Conservative Party Conference 2010

At the Tory conference David Cameron and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, reaffirmed their commitment to a radical transfer of power to the local level and a shake up of the planning system.

In his key-note speech, Cameron stated that Eric Pickles 'is leading the most radical shift in power that this country has seen in decades'.

In his speech to conference, Pickles talked of a revolution in the way local government operates, referring specifically to:

• The potential for Councils to share services, including planning departments
• 'Shredding' unnecessary guidance, performance indicators and data reporting
• Elected Mayors for cities including Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle and Bristol and the potential for them to pool funding
• The potential for councils to borrow against future business rates to provide new infrastructure (announced previously by Nick Clegg at the LibDem Conference)
• Removing pre determination rules for local councillors

Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, set out plans for two high speed rail lines running from Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester, whilst Grant Shapps confirmed that the Homes and Community Agency would not be scrapped but would face major cuts to its budget.

Speaking at a fringe event, Pickles also indicated that up to half of the 57 Local Enterprise Partnership (LE P) bids submitted by local authorities were set to be approved, although this differs from Vince Cable's earlier indication that only 25% were up to scratch. A more recent announcement has confirmed that LEPs have been approved for the 2 city regions around Leeds and Sheffield. In the North East, LEPs have been approved for Tees Valley and the North East Partnership.

The fringe offered more insight to the beliefs underpinning some of the changes, with Eric Pickles claiming that 'there has been no planning in this country for 40 years. We have just had development control, not planning'. He also referred to council planning departments as 'a cross between the last bastion of communism and sheer bloody mindedness'.

At another event, Under Secretary of State for Planning, Bob Neill, promised a new simplified planning framework would be put to Parliament in December including a presumption in favour of sustainable development and strengthening the ability of committees to reject garden grabbing in the wake of officers being too 'bureaucratic and cautious'.

The coalition government has also pledged to be the 'greenest government ever' and since the election, a raft of ministerial speeches have confirmed their intention to implement this pledge. At present we know that the government is reviewing a range of policy and guidance such as the Code for Sustainable Homes, the definition of Zero Carbon and the building regulations with a view of accelerating the pace of carbon reductions. As confirmed in a speech by Oliver Letwin at the Tory conference, the government will also be introducing 'The Green Deal' which is one of their flagship policies aimed at cutting carbon and generating green collar jobs via a mass programme of housing sock retrofitting with energy efficiency measures. We await further detail with interest.

COMMENT

The Conservative Party Conference was short on new announcments for planning but has confirmed the coalition's commitment to a programme of radical reform under the banners of 'localism' and the 'Big Society', which is set to have profound implications for planning and development activity.

Concern about the speed of the changes, and the ability of local authorities to accommodate those changes in the face of spending cuts, remains. Conversely, the coalition government's continued commitment to cutting public sector red tape and bureaucracy is positive.

The next major milestones in the reform process are the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20 October and the release of the draft Decentralisation and Localism Bill, which is expected in November.