National Planning Framework 4

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 19 April 2022.

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Photo of Foysol Choudhury Foysol Choudhury Labour

I commend the committee and its members for their hard work in producing the report. It provides a good overview of the benefits and problems of the draft planning framework.

The framework will set the stage for Scotland’s development in the coming years as a nation that is committed to sustainability, biodiversity and tackling the climate crisis, and the committee clearly recognises the importance of getting it right. That is partly why I and my colleagues on the Scottish Labour benches find the lack of detail in the framework particularly concerning.

If NPF4 is to be successful, planning authorities across Scotland must have clarity, both in terms of their priorities and the definitions of the areas that they are to prioritise. Such clarity is particularly important because of the emphasis that the Scottish Government is putting on the climate emergency. Of course, we welcome that emphasis, but the authorities that will be operating under the framework must have confidence that they are following it as it was intended to be followed. Any lack of clarity defeats the point of having a national planning framework in the first place and invites piecemeal implementation across local authorities.

We must also ensure that people have confidence in the planning system and the role of local development plans. In the Lothian region, I have heard that the Scottish Government has not provided robust interim guidance on the issue of effective land supply. Reporters have also been given requirements that have led to their approving speculative sites that do not fit with local development plans. In such circumstances, how are local populations and local authorities to be brought along with the planning and development process? Any national framework must be a collaborative process that brings along local populations and local authorities and does not alienate them.

If we are to ensure a truly national planning framework, we must have a commitment from the Scottish Government to properly funded planning departments. After years of real-terms cuts to local authorities, we have a situation in which planning departments have been cut back to their bare minimum. How do we expect the framework to work at a national level, when its implementation will depend on how, or whether, local authorities across Scotland have been able to shield their planning departments from nearly a decade of cuts?

It is crucial that we get answers to those questions right now, so that we do not have to chase solutions to them years down the line and risk wasting yet more time and resources in pursuing goals that are not clearly set out. Therefore, I join my colleagues in calling for a pause to the process, so that those points can be addressed.