"The residents of one London neighbourhood - Downing Street - certainly seem to have a plan.Seeing reform of the planning system take centre stage in George Osborne's Budget yesterday was a rare but heartening experience.
Even better was that the Chancellor seemed to offer some clarity, not yet teased out of the 207 clauses of the Localism Bill, on his vision for Government's new planning regime.
The proposition to communities now appears to be simple: "where would you like your new jobs and economic growth?" - perhaps a far cry from the Coalition's pre-election rhetoric.
Decentralisation minister Greg Clark made similarly encouraging noises to Parliament, shining a light on the somewhat undefined concept of a "presumption in favour of sustainable development" (undefined of course aside from the words "in" and "of").
Yet despite these enormously helpful statements, it is fair to say that the development community may still need some convincing, at least judging by a fascinating debate in Birmingham last night, hosted by the BPF, Wragge and Co and PPS Group.
A quick poll found just one person who believed that the bill, as drafted, would aid growth, and only a handful who believed the opposite. The vast majority of what was an excellent turnout did not feel able to guess one way or the other.
Of course, concerns remain on a range of issues, on the role of Local
Enterprise Partnerships, on the cost and difficulty of compiling
neighbourhood plans, and on perceived inability of residents to welcome
new development.
Ministers have argued that greater engagement and "incentives" (should developers pay for street parties to celebrate the Royal wedding?) will change their minds - if saying no is still an option.
Yet there were positives. Birmingham's new chief planner Andrew Round (only slightly put out at being accused of being an "enemy of enterprise" by the Coalition) said he welcomed any attempt to reduce the 900,000, sometimes contradictory, words of planning guidance with which he and his staff must wrestle.
Mark Kerr, a director at planning consultancy PPS Group welcomed the recognition that would be given to pre application consultation and the new freedom for councillors to engage with developers.
And Mike Best head of the Birmingham office of Turley Associates, touched on an area where we at the BPF have been focussing much of our effort: making sure that businesses' voice is also heard alongside those of residents in the new neighbourhood planning regime.
The Bill as drafted talks only of residents creating neighbourhood forums (fora?) (indeed as one wag pointed out, they could just be three men in a pub who actually live in the next town along).
But to their great credit, ministers have listened to our argument that businesses too are part of the community, and we believe may be minded to put forward amendments to the Bill that would allow for business-led or mixed-use neighbourhood forums where appropriate.
Mike Best who is a director of the successful Colmore Business Improvement District in Birmingham, pointed out that this should be seen as a great opportunity the private sector to play an active role in shaping and creating new economic activity in their areas.
Our challenge now is to show ministers that it could work, and that their longed-for patchwork quilt of neighbourhood plans, LEPs and Enterprise Zones covering the country can become a reality.
It what emerges is instead, as one speaker feared, an incomplete jigsaw it would seem that one community group in Westminster will not be happy."
Liz Peace is chief executive of the British Property Federation
Ministers have argued that greater engagement and "incentives" (should developers pay for street parties to celebrate the Royal wedding?) will change their minds - if saying no is still an option.
Yet there were positives. Birmingham's new chief planner Andrew Round (only slightly put out at being accused of being an "enemy of enterprise" by the Coalition) said he welcomed any attempt to reduce the 900,000, sometimes contradictory, words of planning guidance with which he and his staff must wrestle.
Mark Kerr, a director at planning consultancy PPS Group welcomed the recognition that would be given to pre application consultation and the new freedom for councillors to engage with developers.
And Mike Best head of the Birmingham office of Turley Associates, touched on an area where we at the BPF have been focussing much of our effort: making sure that businesses' voice is also heard alongside those of residents in the new neighbourhood planning regime.
The Bill as drafted talks only of residents creating neighbourhood forums (fora?) (indeed as one wag pointed out, they could just be three men in a pub who actually live in the next town along).
But to their great credit, ministers have listened to our argument that businesses too are part of the community, and we believe may be minded to put forward amendments to the Bill that would allow for business-led or mixed-use neighbourhood forums where appropriate.
Mike Best who is a director of the successful Colmore Business Improvement District in Birmingham, pointed out that this should be seen as a great opportunity the private sector to play an active role in shaping and creating new economic activity in their areas.
Our challenge now is to show ministers that it could work, and that their longed-for patchwork quilt of neighbourhood plans, LEPs and Enterprise Zones covering the country can become a reality.
It what emerges is instead, as one speaker feared, an incomplete jigsaw it would seem that one community group in Westminster will not be happy."
Liz Peace is chief executive of the British Property Federation
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