Savills : What role can the planning system play in Levelling Up?

The prioritisation of the tiers for the Levelling Up Fund in England have been identified taking account of Productivity, Connectivity and Regeneration. Separating these factors out by local authority can start to show the types of interventions most needed to improve the performance of those areas. There needs to be clear understanding of the capacity of an area to deliver the real estate needed to support economic growth.

Regeneration: Housing and employment are inextricably linked, and given the low residential vacancy rates, even in economically underperforming areas, increasing net delivery of housing, as well as improving the quality of existing stock, will be key to supporting growth ambitions. Investment in high value industries to boost productivity and employment risks being wasted if it isn't accompanied by sufficient new housing of the right type. Commercial occupiers will be less inclined to base themselves in areas where the availability and quality of residential property is a barrier to recruiting and retaining the best employees.

David Jackson, Savills head of planning says, 'This is perhaps the greatest role for planning in delivering Levelling Up missions: there needs to be clear understanding of the capacity of an area to deliver the real estate needed to support economic growth. And in tightly constrained urban areas, joint planning mechanisms need to be in place to ensure unmet housing need and supporting infrastructure can be delivered.'

Productivity: To meet the ambition of creating more competitive cities, Levelling Up policy is likely to be most effective if it focuses on creating high performing, high value clusters of businesses. These clusters will be predominantly in urban locations, benefitting from the agglomeration effect of denser settlements, but need to be supported by the right infrastructure across regions. The areas most in need of improved productivity are in the East Midlands - which contains seven of the 20 least productive areas in the UK - and Yorkshire and the Humber. A core challenge, will be focusing investment, and ensuring positive planning in those locations, to ensure that Levelling Up is not spread too thinly.

Connectivity: The connectivity metric measures the average journey time to the nearest employment centre of at least 5,000 jobs. It identifies areas where the transport network could be holding back the local economy. Emily Williams, Savills research director, says, 'For areas such as the East of England and the South West, a core component of Levelling Up will be increasing transport links to employment hubs such as Cambridge, Norwich, Bristol and Exeter from surrounding local authorities. Strategic planning across local authority boundaries will be important to align public transport services, and using the powers devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities can increase the impact of this, for example through commissioning bus services.'

Future housing development also needs to be located in areas that can easily access public and / or active transport networks to ensure that they don't fall into a cycle of isolation, a strategy that will also help meet sustainability goals.

Another important metric for ensuring the most people are connected to important city-regions is the travel to work data. This assesses how many people travel in and out of an area each day for work. The greater the amount of movement (flows in and out) the more inefficient the economy in terms of delivering housing and jobs in the same location, which creates an imbalance. More sustainable planning should address these challenges, notably in functional economic areas by ensuring new housing is provided close to jobs.

The report also looks at the core implications for the planning system and defines where planning will have the biggest role in achieving the Government's ambitions in tackling regional disparities. These measures include:

• Effective Strategic Planning: Ensure coordinated strategic plan making across functional economic areas, not just traditional local authority boundaries. Revisit approach to Mayoral Combined Authorities and Combined Authorities to ensure positive strategic planning occurs at this scale.
• Place: Jobs generation needs to be aligned with housing delivery priorities. Workable incentives to produce up to date local plans with a focus on productivity growth
• City-Regions: Link investment priorities to defined clusters of growth, likely based on established city-regions. Ensuring, for example rapid growth in investment and public transport improvements to link homes and jobs
• Nations: Ensure funding priorities in Scotland and Wales are adequately co-ordinated with the devolved governments and existing strategic spatial plans
• Levelling Up Bill - Ensure effective implementation of LU Bill planning measures in England, to ease barriers for regeneration, eg: CPO costs and with effective transition measures to avoid planning uncertainty and delays.
• Sustainable Development - Ensure a clear priority for long-term sustainable development allied to appropriate environmental priorities, in additional to effective implementation of LU Bill proposals for environmental outcomes.