Planning Performance: High Level Group minutes - March 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Cllr Gail Macgregor (Chair), COSLA Spokesperson for Environment and Economy
• Joe Fitzpatrick MSP, Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning
• Paul Macari (Aberdeenshire Council) SOLACE
• Rob McIntosh (Aberdeenshire Council), SOLAR
• Dr Caroline Brown, Royal Town Planning Institute
• Heather Claridge (A&DS), Key Agencies Group
• Craig McLaren, National Planning Improvement Champion
• David Melhuish, Applicant Stakeholder Group (Scottish Property Federation)
• Calum Lindsay, COSLA
• Fiona Simpson, Scottish Government
• Andy Kinnaird, Scottish Government
• Suzanne Stephen, Scottish Government
• Chris Sinclair, Scottish Government
• Maisie Bennett, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Ian Aikman, (Scottish Borders Council) Heads of Planning Scotland
• Susan Rintoul, National Planning Improvement Champion Support Officer

Items and actions

Welcome and opening remarks

Cllr Macgregor welcomed everyone to the in person meeting.

Minutes of previous meeting and action points

An update was provided to the group on the action points from the last meeting.  One action was outstanding for officials to meet to discuss taking forward the actions in Paper 3 – Resourcing Workshop Outputs. Although officials had not met to discuss, the actions have been incorporated into the consultation and wording cleared with relevant interests prior to publication.

Applicant stakeholder group – priority issue

David Melhuish provided an update to the group on the Discussion from the Applicant Stakeholder Group meeting held in January. Key issues for the group remain to be the continuing variability of interpretation and implementation of NPF4, communication with applicants and timescales for determining applications. David noted that the meeting was held in advance of the publication of the Planning Application Statistics and Investing in Planning Consultation.

Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) resources survey

Paul Macari introduced the paper provided by Heads of Planning Scotland on the impact of the 2022 increase to planning fees and how any additional income has been utilised. The group discussed the findings of the paper, acknowledging that it provides useful context to the wider financial challenges faced by local authorities. The group were also keen to thank HOPS for producing this valuable piece of work which can be used in conjunction with the responses to the Investing in Planning consultation.

Investing in Planning – a consultation on resourcing Scotland’s planning system

Scottish Government (SG) officials provided an overview of the contents of the consultation paper. The consultation was welcomed by members who were keen to acknowledge the value in publicising the work already underway to improve processes, address recruitment and skills as well as looking at the financial resources available to authorities. There was discussion on the proposal for the planning hub and interest in the short term working group on proportionality of assessments.

• SG to provide high level feedback on consultation responses at next meeting
• SG to lead work on establishing Chief Planner Working group on proportionality of assessments in the summer

National Planning Improvement Framework and call for ideas updates

Craig McLaren provided an update on progress with the implementation of the National Planning Improvement Framework (NPIF).The group discussed how the peer review process could operate including who would be best placed to chair any meeting. The National Planning Improvement Champion (NPIC) will take account of the views expressed by members and trial various approaches with cohort 1.

• NPIC to feedback on experience of cohort 1 in completing NPIFs at the next meeting

Any other business and date of next meeting

The Minister highlighted to members that there were also two other consultations published on 28 February.  The Minister encouraged members of the group to make their views known on  Masterplan Consent Area Regulations and Development Plan Amendment Regulations.  

The next meeting of the group will be held on 19 June via MS Teams – invites have been issued.