How will your area's Spatial Development Strategy deliver a step change in ambition? Strategic planning is making a comeback in England with the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the English Devolution White Paper. These spotlight the need for co-ordinated planning across local authority boundaries, empowering new "Strategic Authorities" with responsibilities including spatial planning, economic development, skills & employment and regeneration. Last week, the Strategic Planning Group held its second topic-led session. This workshop explored how can we best set vision and ambition at a strategic scale. Developing future SDSs will be a journey shaped by diverse voices, drawing consensus through constructive dialogue and positive debate. Key points from discussion at Session 2 included: > Resilient visions: SDSs need a bold vision that transcends political cycles. A vision that delivers clarity and confidence, guiding investment in infrastructure and delivering good growth; > Delivery focussed: SDSs must translate ambition into a clear, actionable spatial framework; > Effective communication: Clear place specific spatial diagrams should illustrate the vision of an SDS; > Collective energy: Building cross-party and cross-sector commitment should be a key focus for SDS visions. Your turn – how can SDSs drive ambitious change in your area? Share your thoughts below. Learn more about the group and its workshops: https://shorturl.at/bboKX
Resilient, foresight enabled visions of the future. This iteration of SDS's should have imagination interwoven into their cores...and also be rooted in vision led masterplanning...
Rosie Pearson
3mo
Is the group discussing how we can move away from the call for sites process? Until we do that, I believe all attempts at strategic planning are doomed. We will never, for example, see a transit-oriented approach or something like Copenhagen’s five fingers approach if we continue to rely on a call for sites process. (Depressingly, even the New Towns Taskforce is relying on a call for sites) Catriona Riddell
Experienced Senior Leader, Government Advisor and Consultant. Place, Infrastructure, Investment and Digital
3mo2025 looks like it will be a big year for spatial planning. Long time coming! Doing this in the digital information age will be a very different approach and implementation. We don’t need to be constrained by thinking in terms of plans and strategies. This will be an opportunity to fundamentally redesign how we think about land use and the ecosystem of planning, delivery, investment and economic development… #ThinkDifferent #PlanDifferent #DeliverBetter