Planning stance commended by Business Voice
Lobby group Business Voice West Midlands (BVWM) has praised the decision of the region’s main councils to continue some elements of regional planning. The organisation’s comments come after the government announced plans to abolish planning at a regional level.
West Midlands Planning and Transportation Sub Committee led the stance, representing Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Solihull local authorities and integrated transport authority Centro.
The committee stated: “Although it is the secretary of state’s intention to abolish regional spatial strategies (RSSs) as statutory documents, it does not follow that all policies within them need to be abolished too.
“Certain RSS policies, and particularly the Urban Renaissance strategy, have served the metropolitan area well. Moreover, as it is a long term approach, which seeks to reverse deep rooted adverse economic, social and environmental trends, it follows that it needs time to take effect.”
Debbie Walsh, BVWM board member and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' regional head of policy and communications, said: “BVWM has said all along there needs to be some element of strategic regional thinking.
“We commend our councils for their attempt to ensure that much of the work to date, which is backed by a sound evidence base, is not thrown away. This very firm commitment to work together across boundaries is surely in line with the secretary of state’s view that local authorities should be finding ways of cooperating across borders in an organic rather than top down, proscribed way.
"The fact that it very much reflects previous regional working is testament to stance that we have always maintained in relation to the West Midlands being, by and large, a very naturally inter-related and inter-dependant region geographically and economically.”
It is anticipated that legislation in the Localism Bill, set to abolish RSSs, will take 12 to 18 months before it is fully enacted. The sub-committee said that it was not clear whether there will be any alternative statutory role for local enterprise partnerships when they come into play.
