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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 10 January 2025
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Displaying 4578 contributions

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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

That is helpful. I will bring in Miles Briggs with a number of questions.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

David Givan, will you answer that question first? You might have a few brownfield sites in your portfolio.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

Thank you very much for that. As no one else has an opinion about the hierarchy aspect—I do not see anyone wanting to jump in—I will move on to my next question.

Another thing that we have heard from witnesses is the need for planning authorities to take a proportionate approach to the amount of information that is required to support a planning application, especially in light of the new NPF4 requirements on climate and biodiversity. I would be interested to hear from you all on that. I will start with David Givan. Do you have a sense that local authorities are adopting a proportionate approach? If not, could you give us an understanding of why that is not happening, and what we would need to do to minimise the amount of supporting information that is required?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

Thank you very much for that. It was a sobering point to end on, but it is an important one. At the beginning of the session, the committee set out that we would like people to be excited rather than exercised by planning, and we are trying to do our bit to make sure that people understand. On the points that Ian Aikman made about young people caring about the climate and nature emergencies, having a home to live in and where the rivers flow, I note that planning offers a really important place for that.

As always, I wish that we had more time, because there were lots of tributaries that we could have delved into further. I hope that we will get a good picture from this panel of witnesses, the next one, the ones last week and some others, and I think that that is already happening. Thank you all so much for joining us. I briefly suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

10:17 Meeting suspended.  

10:21 On resuming—  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

I welcome our witnesses on the second and final panel. We are joined by Esmé Clelland, who is the senior conservation planner at RSPB Scotland and convener of Scottish Environment LINK’s LINK planning group; Claire Daly, who is head of policy and communications at Sustrans and is representing the Climate Emergency Response Group; Clare Symonds, who is the chair of Planning Democracy; and Morag Watson, who is the director for onshore wind power at Scottish Renewables.

Before we turn to questions, I want to let you know that we will try to direct our questions at specific witnesses where possible, but if you would like to come in, please indicate that to me or the clerks.

There is no need for you to operate your microphones. If you could make sure that your electronic gadgets are in silent mode, that would be great.

I will begin. I would like to understand whether you have a sense that planning authorities and developers have changed their approach to development and decision-making, in the light of NPF4 policies on climate change and biodiversity. I said that I would direct my questions specifically, so I will pass that to Claire Daly first. I know that you all have different perspectives. I have asked that initial general question; I will then ask Planning Democracy a specific question.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

Would anyone else like to come in on whether the six principles are having an impact?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

Thank you for highlighting the challenge of how, from your perspective, NPF4 focuses on larger projects and does not really meet the needs of smaller projects.

You mentioned the stretched capacity of planners and that, currently, people are not coming through with the necessary training and understanding on climate and biodiversity. I imagine that you speak with other planning authorities that are working on smaller-scale projects more consistently. Have you identified any short or medium-term solutions that we could look at that could help with the capacity issue and provide support for taking a proportionate approach?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

The point about regional hubs certainly came up at some point when we were doing work on NPF4 last year.

11:00  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

Thank you. We previously agreed to take the next three items in private. As that was the last public item on our agenda, I close the public part of the meeting.

11:36 Meeting continued in private until 11:39.  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

National Planning Framework 4 (Annual Review)

Meeting date: 14 May 2024

Ariane Burgess

I am sure that the chief planner and her team are very busy on that work.

Pam, do you want to come in with your other question?