The Prologue:
So many to choose from but I went for this from President Truman: “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”
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For all those of you who remember that once so prolific programme called Building Schools for the Future, we now have a new ‘free schools’ building programme, or maybe a new an acronym, SOBY (Sod Off and Build it Yourself)… However, this is all part of the new legislative agenda and perhaps radical change is the only way forward – we’re forever complaining about people not liking change so maybe we should embrace it.
The Academies Bill was rapidly passed through Parliament last night, which means that today, to accompany this, CLG has put out a statement on removing the planning barriers to free schools. This will be accompanied in due course by consultation on changes to the Use Class Orders so as to enable change of use more easily for existing buildings.
Free schools are much more common on the continent and in the US where charitable trusts and private business have been involved in setting up and running schools. Whilst there are many positive points in the concept, it remains to be seen just how effective the free schools concept will be at ‘transforming the lives of disadvantaged children’, or will they simply be set up in areas where more affluent parents are able to establish schools for their children and result in a more exclusive two-tier system? There are many who welcome the changes but there are widespread concerns over the impact on existing schools, school rolls, impact on schools in disadvantaged areas etc.
Aside from the changes to the planning system itself to enable free schools, of interest is the approach the Government has taken to quickly change the system and the way in which changes are to be implemented. This inevitably raises a question over whether this is an indicator of likely tone and approach for a future planning bill…
Key points are:
- The best authorities will work with applicants to identify the key issues and how they might be resolved, before the planning application is submitted… to bring about solutions which will benefit their local community (note use of the phrase ‘the best authorities’ which raises the question of what happens with those authorities not deemed to be best in class – excuse the pun – possibly nothing, which is a problem in itself in development terms)
- Local authorities should attach very significant weight to the desirability of establishing new schools and to enabling local people to do so (this is to be a material consideration in the planning process)
- Local authorities should adopt a positive and constructive approach towards applications to create new schools and seek to mitigate the negative impacts of development through planning conditions or obligations
- Local authorities should only refuse planning permission for a new school if the adverse impact on the local area outweigh the desirability of establishing a school in that area (this is, of course, highly subjective as what is deemed as adverse by one individual may not be by another. However, it is likely that it is anticipated that free schools will automatically have local support and therefore strip out a layer of potential opposition)
A further interesting addition is the statement that “if a local authority nevertheless refuses permission on this basis, the Government will ask the Planning Inspectorate to deal swiftly with any appeal that is lodged”. Obviously the inspectorate is an impartial process but the phrasing seems to give an indication of where the Government stands on this. It will be fascinating to see the extent to which they maintain a hands off, let communities decide approach should several free schools applications wind-up on the desk of the Secretary of State.
One question which remains unanswered is what the implications would be if a free school were to be proposed as part of a mixed-use residential development – would this similarly be fast-tracked, would the school be subject to separate consideration? Could this form the basis for a whole new approach to community planning and could this possibly be part of the incentives which the Government are looking to the property industry to begin bringing forward? This potentially throws up some interesting debates and scenarios.
The statement made this afternoon will be ratified in the national planning framework which will be published in due course. Also today, Eric Pickles has pledged to allow LGA members to be as radical as they wish to be and he will support them and cut through bureaucracy to achieve their goals (although he did temper this by saying that ideas needed to not be barmy…)
Anyway, I’m off – can’t stay at work all afternoon, I have a school to set-up and run when I get home and my next door neighbour is running the local NHS Trust after which we both thought we’d go on the beat for a few hours to save the Police from having to do the job…
Written by Stephen Byfield