Devolution

The pace of devolution is increasing. Many councils are going to go through significant change, and planning services need to change too. Fortunately we have been tracking previous transformations and asking what lessons can be drawn out to help others on the same journey.

Some notes containing badly written acronyms are on a whiteboard.

 

The experiences of Cornwall and Buckinghamshire

Between 2020-23 we delivered several planning peer challenges in councils that had recently become new unitaries. We reflected on what we learned in these councils, and went back to talk to some unitary councils that are a bit further along on the journey. We think some of these thoughts are useful to all councils going through big change, including combined authorities and councils working in partnerships.
 
Our thoughts are summarised in this report, along with an appendix containing some helpful questions to scope out change projects. We are very grateful to our colleagues in Cornwall and Buckinghamshire who were generous with their time and knowledge. 

 

April 24

The experiences of Wiltshire and Devon & Torbay

At our conference in 2024 one of our topics was reorganisation. Two senior managers took us through their recent history, including some invaluable and clear messages from Nic about what he learned along the way. In short - be radical, start fast and embrace the opportunities of operating at a bigger scale. 

 

Join our cohort for strategic authority planners

Alongside the creation of a new set of unitary councils the Planning & Infrastructure Bill sets out a new layer of strategic planning expressed as Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs). These will be created by Strategic Authorities - sometimes the combined authority, sometimes a collaboration of unitary and county councils. 

These SDSs will provide for a strategic way of considering growth, energy and many other basic aspects of life but will also need to negotiate relationships with local plans, industrial strategies and many other frameworks. 

We've set up a basecamp network for people who will need to get their heads around all this. Fill in the form to join the SDS network here.  

 

Other helpful resources

The LGA has a whole devolution and reorganisation hub with many helpful resources including offers of support and guidance - eg on data sharing. 

We will be doing more in this space in 2025-26 - if you have any suggestions or requests get in touch.