Whitehall turf wars threaten economic growth and recovery in many parts of Britain by undermining attempts to co-ordinate planning for big infrastructure projects such as roads, ports and railways, warns a new report from leading housing and planning charity, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA).
A series of National Policy Statements (NPS), a cornerstone of England’s new national planning system unveiled in 2008, are leaving different government departments to make their own plans for major infrastructure projects. This means, for example, that where a new high-speed rail link is planned that will create jobs and bring people into an area, too little consideration is being given to the demand it will create for an extra power station or new roads.
Connecting Local Economies - The Transport Implications, argues that a coherent national development framework is needed to inform local decision making, with a joined up transport policy as a first step, to make sure opportunities to build better transport links are not missed, threatening economic growth outside London and the South East.
The report, supported by the Local Government Association, said a rounded transport policy statement must address all aspects of transport – rail, road, ports and airports. Currently, the Department for Transport is producing individual statements which could work against each other – a far cry from an overall, joined-up policy.
TCPA President, Professor Sir Peter Hall said: "The present system, in which the Department for Transport can make a statement on airports that takes no account of its own plans for a second high-speed rail line, makes no sense whatsoever. England desperately needs an integrated transport investment strategy in which each piece of the system makes its own optimal contribution, linking together into a seamless web of efficient and sustainable connections."
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