Elle Cass, planning director for the Birmingham office of Jones Lang LaSalle, explains why a change of mindset is needed for the successful implementation of new planning guidance

A year ago, localism was the big issue for everyone in the planning community; what exactly it was, how it might impact on development, and what new challenges it could bring. Such debates were stimulating and even provocative, but in the absence of significant levels of planning activity, it has inevitably proved difficult to subsequently assess how the new concept has bedded down.

Instead, as the economy continues to stagnate, local authority planners face a more tangible concern - how to deliver the efficiency and certainty which developers and landowners need, against a backdrop of reduced resources.

I do sympathise with development control teams ordered to find significant payroll savings, because funding has been dramatically cut by Whitehall. I also don’t think that the coalition, which conceived and promoted localism so enthusiastically, understands just how its programme of public sector spending cuts has impacted on planners at the day-to-day operational level.

A typical local authority planning team, which would have had between 10 and 15 staff, is now left with just three or four, and in some cases the most experienced people have been lost, perhaps due to early retirement etc.

In the absence of support - intellectual, political or financial - from central government, councils have been forced to improvise to tackle the new challenges of localism, viability and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). Fortunately, there are local authorities out there, who recognise that their planners need specialist training to understand ‘viability’, or draw on expert advice from external consultants, and to tackle the major challenge of creating a CIL charging schedule which will raise revenue, without inhibiting development, from April 2014.

Innovative thinking is also required more than ever before, as councils and their advisers seek to dilute the impact of spending cuts by working better, and by working smarter. Wolverhampton City Council, for example, has introduced a new model for processing applications.

Once plans are received, planners carry out site inspections early on to assess the proposals, and to identify possible issues well before the statutory consultation period ends. Such a positive approach means potential delays can be avoided, and consents are often granted at a much earlier stage than previously. In my home county of Shropshire, I’ve also been impressed by Telford & Wrekin District Council which has set up strategic application workshops, where proposals can be discussed and analysed before they are finalised, and written guidance is then offered on a wide range of issues.

Some councils have been less proactive, and have simply put up the barricades to developers, just when the country so desperately needs economic stimulus, and the creation of wealth and employment opportunities. Others are simply swamped because their slimmed-down planning teams have insufficient resources to cope with myriad challenges.