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Published: Tues, 22nd June - 13.46 GMT
Last Updated: Tues, 22nd June - 13.46 GMT
Reflections on Labour's
planning legacy
County council criticises Regional Assemblies while former minister admits the previous government got on wrong on some planning issues.
Hampshire County Council has said that the Regional Assemblies were the wrong level to make planning decisions at.
The last of these indirectly elected bodies – which were phased out as part of a 2007 sub-national review – was abolished earlier this year.
They were tasked with formulating the controversial Regional Spatial Strategies which came up with housing figures for local authorities to adopt in their own development plans.
Hampshire planning policy manager Pete Errington has said: “We had no faith in the Regional Assembly. Regardless of the election, we wanted the powers handed back to us.”
When the assemblies were originally set up, strategic planning powers were taken away from the elected county councils and given to the regional body.
The new government does not want to reinstate the assemblies so they argue that more county power would help fill the vacuum between central government and individual communities as the coalition gives more power to the very bottom tier of government.
Meanwhile, former housing minister John Healey MP also voiced regrets about some of the other planning measures brought in under his own government.
He said: “We brought in a system that was too complex, too lengthy, too technical of local planning frameworks.
“We developed a system that was fine in theory in Whitehall that should have worked, but was actually very difficult to make work,” he added.
The coalition government are currently reviewing the tiers of government involved with planning to create what they argue will be a less complex and more democratic system.
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