Planning Performance: High Level Group minutes - October 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Councillor Gail Macgregor, COSLA Spokesperson for Environment and Economy (Chair)

• Joe Fitzpatrick MSP, Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning (Co-Chair)

• Ian Aikman, Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS)

• Caroline Brown, Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)

• Heather Claridge, Key Agencies Group (KAG)

• Calum Lindsay, COSLA

• Paul Macari, Scottish Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE)

• Rob McIntosh, Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland (SOLAR)

• Craig McLaren, Improvement Service

• Fiona Simpson, Scottish Government

• Bruce Walker, Spokesperson for Applicant Stakeholder Group

• Andy Kinnaird, Scottish Government

• Suzanne Stephen, Scottish Government

• Anne Grove, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Introduction

Cllr Macgregor welcomed the following new members to the group – Caroline Brown representing RTPI and Craig McLaren as the National Planning Improvement Champion (NPIC).

Minutes of previous meeting and action points

HOPS Survey

The information gathered by HOPS at present is incomplete, however consideration is being given as to how to create a better evidence base on the impact of the fee increase.

Statutory guidance on Chief Planning Officers 

SG have circulated an updated further draft for comment and the working group are content. SG will confirm timescales for commencement and publication of the guidance in due course.

Elected member training

It was acknowledged that the Elected Member Training consultation closed on the 26 October. COSLA stated that they had discussed the proposals with their members and would be submitting a formal consultation response.

Applicant Stakeholder Group (ASG)

The spokesperson for ASG provided an update on the discussions held at the Applicant Stakeholder subgroup meeting in August and in particular the groups concerns with the different timescales for legal agreements. The spokesperson for ASG suggested that the legal agreement process feels quicker when the Local Authority recruit an external solicitor.

SOLAR did not consider that an external solicitor would be the correct solution for every authority and explained some of the challenges in the current circumstances. 

It is likely that this issues will be raised and discussed at the resourcing workshops coming up this month. SOLAR and HOPS also offered to discuss the issue in more detail with the Applicant Stakeholder Group to identify workable solutions.

• SOLAR and HOPS to be invited to a future applicant stakeholder group to discuss timescales for legal agreements

Planning Performance Framework (PPF) reports

SG informed the group that all planning authorities have now submitted their PPF Reports.  Feedback was issued to 32 of the 34 authorities on 20 October.   Feedback for the remaining two will be issued shortly. 

Key findings from this year’s PPFs were outlined as follows:

• PPFs this year showed similar trends to previous years

• there were a number of markers which all authorities received a green marking -  Development Plan Scheme, policy Advice and corporate working across services

• there were a number of markers for which the majority of authorities received a green marking – Processing agreements, Early collaboration, Continuous Improvement and Sharing good practice

• markers which continue to show the most variation were decision-making timescales, legacy cases and legal agreement timescales

• the marker with the highest number of red markings was Local Development Plans over five years old 

It was noted that we are now at an important stage in the future of performance reporting and the evidence we have obtained over the past 10 years from PPF will help us going forward into annual statutory reporting.

SG and Key Agencies Group also highlighted that they do not at present undertake their own PPF at present.  This has been done in the past and can be revisited.

National Planning Improvement Champion

The NPIC shared a presentation covering his role, priorities, work done so far to identify how to measure performance, and next steps.

Three main functions of the role were set out to the group. This included the implementation of a new way to measure the performance of a planning authority, identifying strategic challenges across the planning system and identifying ways in which to better share and utilise good practice.

Initial thinking was set out on the future of performance reporting with the main aim for it to be effective but not resource intensive. There should be a shortening of the process for undertaking performance reporting by focusing performance on what we can improve for the future instead of authorities assessing what they have done for the past year.

The NPIC has started to have initial discussions with stakeholders, including speaking to 22 out of 24 authorities to date, as well as stakeholders from the private and community sector to identify the strategic challenges.

He has also opened a call for ideas on three questions –

• what are the outcomes we need the planning system to deliver to have impact?

• what makes a high-performing planning authority?

• how can we measure this?

The group acknowledged the extensive work which is required and the limited resources available at the NPIC’s disposal. HOPS agreed with the approach to look at a more simple and forward-looking way to measure performance and welcome the collaborative approach being taken to focus on solutions and outputs.

SOLACE noted that authorities have specific transformation officers who could potentially provide capacity to help support the NPIC to deliver on his objectives.

SG highlighted how they have specific people in their team which lead on improvements within the practice.

The spokesperson for ASG asked what’s the best practice for the private sector to put forward their experiences of the system to help identify strategic challenges. The NPIC noted the important role that the ASG members have in being key drivers of an effective planning system and the initial discussions which have already occurred with different stakeholders. They are happy to continue the dialogue and welcome the members of the ASG to share their experience.

• NPIC to present their plan on taking forward performance reporting for the 2024-2025 plan

NPF4 Monitoring

SG provided an update on NPF4 Monitoring. They set out that they are looking to progress a monitoring programme framework to assess outputs and outcomes. The framework is intended to cover the spatial strategy, national developments and national planning policy of NPF4 looking at short, medium and long term actions.

It was noted that the focus for the last year has been on how NPF4 policies have been applied during the decision-making process. Some work has already happened on solving policy implementation issues that have been identified. Roundtables on rural housing policy have been held to discuss application and interpretation and roundtables on specific elements of flooding policy are also being held in the near future.

SG welcomed views on best ways to engage with stakeholders going forward on NPF4 monitoring, particularly how to utilise existing meetings and networks already in place.

Chief Planner suggested that the Planning, Infrastructure and Place Advisory Group (PIPAG) could be a useful group for future engagement -  it is still in the early stages of setting out their priorities.

SOLACE highlighted that improvement in timescales could also be a useful indicator for NPF4 monitoring, noting that if development management policies are implemented well over a period of time, timescales should hopefully improve.

The NPIC recognised that there may be potential to join up NPF4 monitoring with wider monitoring of performance of the planning system as a whole.

• SG to take the ideas gathered on board and will meet with the NPIC in the next month

Date of next meeting

The date of next meeting is 13 December, which is to be chaired by the minister. The group agreed that one meeting per year should be held in-person. COSLA have stated they would be able to hold an in-person meeting at their offices next year during the spring.

• SG and COSLA to look for a suitable date in Spring next year for an in-person meeting