5 - Privatisation and the contemporary landscape of planning provision in the UK

Summary

Introduction

Drawing on empirical data largely collected in 2017–2019 from focus groups (FGs), a Freedom of Information (FoI) request and biographical interview data, this chapter seeks to set out the systemic context of what is currently happening in the delivery of planning services in the UK. It sets out and reflects on what is driving these decisions: austerity, government policy preferences, local authorities’ (LAs) choices and consultancies’ involvement. It also sets out and discusses the arrangements that LAs are adopting to provide services, and where consultants and others fit into these arrangements. The aim is to consider the extent to which we might consider UK planning as privatised, the forms this is taking and how common the different forms of privatisation are. We frame this considering the broad definition of privatisation given in Chapter 1, encompassing the various ways in which public sector organisations have been wholly or partly sold off, outsourced or opened up to new forms of discipline and modes of working originating from the private sector.

Importantly, the responsibility to strategically plan for development (create a statutory local plan) and to regulate what is developed through development management decisions remains with the local planning authority (LPA, usually the relevant LA). This may take a variety of forms (this is discussed later on). All other actors involved in the process know that decisions on development must be made by the LPA. The design of the system enables commercial consultants to sell planning, legal and other expertise to clients who need this type of knowledge and experience to navigate the system to achieve their ends.

Consecutive central governments have widened the scope of how LA service provision, including planning provision, might be carried out, with a suggestion for more privatised solutions (for example, Audit Commission, 2006). Austerity, a focus on ‘delivery’ targets and shortages in the supply of planning staff have also shaped how the service might be provided by an LPA. Therefore, this chapter sets this statutory requirement as the baseline around which to consider the privatisation of this service, and sets out the different forms of provision of planning services.