House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee

Select Committee on Communities and Local Government Committee Eleventh Report

5 Councillors

The system rests on the basis that the technical specialist can be challenged by a non-specialist, so that there are checks and balances and that the decisions being made reflect the needs and desires of the wider community—Trevor Roberts Associates.[180]

85. Planning officers are not, of course, the only group of people whose skills are essential if the local authority planning system is to perform efficiently and effectively. The role of councillors within the system has been canvassed extensively among submissions to our inquiry, with a strong focus on whether councillors require more and better training to enable them to cope with a changing planning landscape. In particular, many of the witnesses from whom we have received submissions or heard have argued that councillors need some form of mandatory training if they are to fulfil their function as democratically elected lay representatives of their local communities.

Mandatory training for councillors?

86. Sir John Egan faced calls for compulsory councillor training when he conducted his 2004 review of sustainable communities skills. His review came down against compulsory training, preferring instead to encourage elected members to take part in training in order the better to fulfil their elected role.[181] Kate Barker came to the opposite conclusion in her 2006 review of land use planning, but provided little discussion of the reasoning behind her recommendation that training for councillors be mandatory.[182] The Government did not directly address the question of compulsory training in its response.[183]

87. Most of the evidence taken by our inquiry favours some form of compulsory or mandatory training provision for councillors, particularly for councillors who are local cabinet members in charge of planning policy or who serve on planning committees. For the, example, Lynda Addison of the POS believes that

There is a real difference in terms of planning and licensing or other areas of activity that members get involved in. Both planning and licensing are quasi legal and therefore there is a need to understand the system in a totally different way than there is in other aspects of work within the local authority [...] members need to understand what they can and cannot say and what the current law is in order to talk to the community effectively. [184]

88. The private development sector reached the same conclusion. Liz Peace, Chief Executive of the BPF, which represents many of the country's largest developers, said:

It is imperative that planning committee and development control committee members do have some form of training […] that is for their benefit and not just about us wanting to move the system more quickly… it seems to me extraordinary that someone could turn up one week having done nothing in this field and be asked to opine on something that is extremely detailed.[185]

89. Those who provide training and accredit university courses were, perhaps unsurprisingly, also in favour of compulsory training for councillors. RTPI General Secretary Robert Upton said:

it is very easy these days for local authority members to get themselves into significant trouble if they are not well advised and do not have a real understanding of issues around probity and what they can and cannot do. What we are not trying to do is to turn them into junior professionals; that is not the object of the exercise at all, they have the professionals there to advise them. They need to know enough about the environment and the circumstances and the conditions in which they are working so that they do not get themselves into trouble or get the authority into trouble.[186]

90. Among others, the RICS, the TCPA and the RTPI also support the idea. Some, including the POS, suggest that training might be mandatory only or principally for those most directly involved with planning—cabinet members or members of planning committees.[187]

91. Even among elected members themselves there is a view, albeit a more cautious one, that some level of mandatory training may be desirable. Councillor Ruth Cadbury of the London Borough of Hounslow told us there should be compulsory training for basic regulatory elements, the core roles of development control, and matters relating to conduct, bias, pre-disposition and pre-determination of decisions.[188] She also thought chairs of planning committees needed enhanced training. But both she and Councillor Norman Dingemans of Arun District Council thought any mandatory requirement on councillors should not go so far as requiring 'qualified' councillors: "We are elected and our competence to make decisions is based on our electoral mandate," said Councillor Cadbury.[189]

Current practice

92. The question of compulsory training for councillors may be something of a red herring. Most councils provide training for elected members; and most elected members take it. Councillor Dingemans told us, for example, that Arun provides two days training for councillors before their first development control meeting after an election. New members of the committee are expected to take the training within six months of being appointed to it.[190] Lindsay Frost, head of planning at Lewes District Council, told us it expects planning councillors to take at least 10 hours training each year involving basic training and a regular programme of events on planning issues.[191]

93. But not all councillors take all the recommended training, and those who argue for more systematic and mandatory training identify a range of areas in which they believe greater knowledge among councillors would be desirable. The POS, for example, suggests "members either do not attend [voluntary] training or fail to take on board what is offered", adding:

The change in the nature of planning has left many members behind; they do not understand, nor necessarily want to, the new agenda… Without members improving their knowledge and skills the planning process is likely to be unable to deliver the substantial agenda it has been set notwithstanding any officer training/skills development programme.[192]

94. There have also been suggestions that councillors might be involved in significant planning applications at an early, even pre-application stage, in order that they might be better informed about what is proposed. There is understandable reluctance about this within councils themselves. The Audit Commission says, for example, that "local authorities are understandably anxious about engaging councillors at early stages as they feel this may compromise them once a planning application goes to committee for decision."[193] Councillor Cadbury told us that she and her fellow members would meet developers only when officers were also present to reduce any risk of perception of pre-determination of decision.[194] Councillor Dingemans, too, stressed the difficulty for a councillor of being perceived as showing bias: "it is quite difficult for a councillor who is trying to represent an electorate when they see him or her sitting firmly on the fence unprepared to say I support or do not support this."[195]

95. Councillors have even less spare time than officers and the points made above about the costs to local authorities apply equally. That said, local authorities do have a responsibility to ensure that their members have every opportunity to be adequately trained to take the decisions they face. The PAS notes that the training offered to members by authorities currently varies substantially, and says there is

anecdotal evidence that councillors can find it difficult to access good training within their authorities. There is a wide variation in the development needs of councillors and there is no formally agreed core curriculum for member training.[196]

The principle of democratic accountability

96. Planning has a quasi-legal role. Planning rests on a complex series of laws, rules, codes of conduct and policy guidance. All those things are true; and all of them mean that the vast majority of elected members take their responsibilities seriously. But the councillor has a unique role that falls to no one else in the planning process. The councillor represents the people who live in the area where development will happen—all the people, whether or not they voted for him or her, whether or not the development impinges directly or indirectly on them. The Minister for Housing resisted the idea of compulsory training:

the role that an elected person brings to that function … is not to be the professional […] you need good advice from within your local authority from good staff, and then you have to make a judgment, just as Ministers have to make a judgment.[197]

97. The Minister is entirely correct. Trevor Roberts Associates, itself the provider of training courses, best grasped the essential importance of the principle of democratic accountability:

The role of the planning officer is to provide an objective analysis of the issues in a clear and succinct way, so that the decision maker can make an informed decision […] The councillor needs to be able to have an appreciation of what is proposed but also be able to ask difficult questions in order to test the robustness of the recommendation […] The system rests on the basis that the technical specialist can be challenged by a non-specialist, so that there are checks and balances and that the decisions being made reflect the needs and desires of the wider community.[198]

We agree with the principle that councillors should be as well informed as they can be in order to perform their tasks freely, fairly and properly. We profoundly disagree, however, with the idea that compulsory training for councillors is either essential or necessary.

180 Ev 124 Back

181 ODPM, The Egan Review, April 2004, p. 74. Back

182 Kate Barker, Review of Land Use Planning, recommendation 21. Back

183 Communities and Local Government, Planning for a Sustainable Future: White Paper, May 2007, Cm 7120, p. 214. Back

184 Q 64 Back

185 Qq 81 and 88 Back

186 Q 143 Back

187 Ev 61 Back

188 Q 99 Back

189 Qq 100 and 102 Back

190 Q 102 Back

191 Ev 66 Back