A cross-party committee of MPs have strongly backed the Royal Town Planning Institute’s proposed £500 million funding injection over four years for English planning,

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee report The Future of the Planning System in England, published today, found that planning is currently under-resourced and that proposed reforms would put further pressure on the system.

RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills said: “This is a thorough and comprehensive report by the Select Committee. As we have emphasised to Government, resourcing for planning is inadequate and reforms will place further demands on them unless this issue is addressed. The Committee is entirely correct to state that a major programme of reform is now contingent on government first ensuring the resources are in place. I applaud the call for Treasury to commit now to putting this in place.

“We agree that a skills and resourcing strategy should precede the bill. As the committee also noted, the RTPI have called for further support for our flagship apprenticeships, as well as for chief placemakers to be Chartered planners.

 “The committee’s recommendations for further nuance within the areas of the proposed zonal system are common sense. As the report noted, we think Growth Areas have the potential to be excellent enablers of development, but suburbs and industrial areas require very different approaches.”