Scottish Government begins review of community planning arrangements, minister confirms

At his first official meeting with local authority body COSLA Local Government Minister Derek Mackay said that the community planning process, which allows councils to plan public services in the local area, must be made more effective in order to deliver better outcomes for communities.

"The community planning process ultimately stands or falls on whether it delivers better outcomes for individuals and communities. If we're going to meet the financial pressures, changing demography and the growing social needs Scotland faces, we need radical public service reform – and community planning must keep up with the pace," he said.

"Parts of the current community planning framework need strengthening. It must deliver better outcomes, greater integration of public services at a local level, greater consistency in local integration and clearer accountability for partners."

Under the Local Government in Scotland Act, councils have the lead role in coordinating the community planning process through a Community Planning Partnership (CPP). A CPP plans public services in a local area, and will involve other relevant local bodies such as health boards, police and local housing associations. The Act also gives councils a broad general 'power to advance well being', which allows them to do anything they consider is likely to promote the wellbeing of the area or the people who live there.

Each CPP has set up a Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) with the Scottish Government which sets out planned improvements for the local area, targets to enable them to measure progress and how the planned improvements contribute to the Scottish Government's national outcomes. SOAs are intended to allow planning priorities in a particular area to better reflect that area's needs and circumstances. CPPs must consult the community on the priorities they include in a SOA, and provide annual progress reports to the community and to the Scottish Government.

The timely review of community planning arrangements would enable CPPs to agree new SOAs with the Scottish Government "as quickly as possible" after the local elections in May, Mackay said.

"Planning is crucial to enable good development and I don't want to see our planning system blamed for slowing economic recovery. That means an efficient, speedy system, focused on outcomes and providing business with the certainty is needs to make the decision to invest in Scotland," he said.

Although the Scottish Government had already outlined its commitment to increasing planning application fees to fund improvements to the community planning service, he added that there had to be "firm actions and improved results" if local authorities expected service users to pay more.

"We have been working closely with local government on a new performance framework and on a new fees structure that reflects more accurately the actual costs of handling applications and we will consult on planning fees shortly. That is the way we can give developers and communities the quality planning service they need and deserve," he said.

COSLA president Pat Watters welcomed the Minister's comments, and said that all partners involved in community planning had to commit to the process on an equal basis.