Response from Planning Officers Society

to Audit Commission Consultation on District Council CPA

The Planning Officers Society represents the most senior professionals and managers of planning functions in the English Local Authorities.  One of its purposes is to assist and advise the Government and the Local Government Association on planning matters and related issues.  It also seeks to act as a centre of excellence, undertake research and promote best practice in planning matters.

The Society is grateful for the opportunity to respond to the Audit Commission’s consultation on its proposals for a new framework for District Council CPA.

The Society would point out that Central Government and Local Government both require delivery of key agendas covering sustainability, housing, regeneration and liveability.  A central component of this is provided by the statutory planning system through the preparation of Local Development Frameworks and their implementation through the development control regime.  If real progress is to be made in delivering these agendas this system has to be co-ordinated at the centre of each local authority.  This should in turn be reflected in any revised CPA arrangements for District Councils in contrast to the current situation, where the planning system is under-represented in the CPA regime and the associated performance management framework.

The Society therefore proposes the following measures for inclusion in the revised CPA arrangements:-

i.         Use of Resources Statements should include specific reference to the delivery of the planning service within each authority.       

ii.       Assessment of planning services should be based on agreed revised performance indicators which are delivered in real time and are accessible remotely, in order to reduce the burden on the Commission and to eliminate the unnecessary time-lags associated with current practice. A consistent means of evaluating outcomes of the planning service within the community is an important element of this assessment, including the support from the community for the expenditure forecasts to deliver the service.

iii.      The Commission should retain the capacity to undertake service-based inspections in order to ensure that the planning system and other key services may be quality assured.  

The Society trusts that these changes would facilitate greater ownership of the CPA process within local authorities, being based on a regime which derives performance information on a regular, timely and dynamic basis, which would lead to greater cost effectiveness and additional value for each authority and for the communities it serves, and which would provide proper recognition for the crucial role played by the planning system in delivering on many of the key agendas of Central and Local Government. In this there is an important link to be made between the planning process and the emerging LAA agenda.

Steve Quartermain

Chairman, POS Management Committee