Planning for Place: Strategic Vision and Policy in Local Government

As local authorities face mounting pressure to deliver housing, drive economic growth, and respond to sweeping national reforms, the strategic role of planning policy has never been more vital. With the government pushing for 1.5 million new homes and the return of strategic planning, planners are being asked to do more, with fewer resources and tighter timelines. To explore how planning can truly unlock place potential, I spoke with Graham Nelson, chartered town planner, senior local government executive, and one of the most experienced voices in the sector. Our conversation, part of the Truth About Local Government podcast, covered everything from the purpose of planning policy to the realities of leadership, collaboration, and reform. This blog distils Graham’s insights into practical reflections for planners and policy leads navigating the challenges and opportunities of today’s planning landscape.

1. Planning Policy’s Purpose: Facilitating Sustainable Development

Planning policy is far more than a technical exercise, it is the strategic backbone of place-making. At its core, it exists to enable sustainable development: the careful balancing of economic growth, environmental stewardship, and social equity. Graham Nelson was clear that this remains the central mission of planning, even as the system faces mounting criticism, political scrutiny, and structural reform.

The UK’s persistent failure to deliver sufficient housing and globally competitive industry has created a complex web of challenges. A chronic shortage of homes has driven up prices, strained infrastructure, and left younger generations struggling to access secure, affordable housing. At the same time, economic stagnation has limited opportunities for innovation and investment, weakening the resilience of local economies and undermining the quality of life in many communities. Planning policy, when properly resourced and strategically applied, offers a powerful response to these issues. It provides the framework through which local authorities can shape growth in a way that reflects the unique character, needs, and aspirations of their communities. It enables councils to guide development to the right places, ensure infrastructure is delivered in tandem, and protect the natural and built environment for future generations.

Graham argued that planning must be seen not as a barrier to progress, but as a vital enabler. It is a tool for shaping communities, supporting inclusive economic development, and improving lives. Yet to fulfil this role, the profession must reclaim its narrative. Too often, planners are portrayed as obstacles, bureaucratic gatekeepers slowing down delivery. This perception not only undermines public trust but also erodes the confidence and morale of planning teams. To counter this, planners must demonstrate their strategic value. They must show how planning policy can deliver national priorities, such as housing targets, climate action, and levelling up, through locally grounded, evidence-based approaches. This requires strong leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and a renewed investment in planning capacity across local government.

Ultimately, planning policy is about unlocking the potential of place. It is about creating environments where people can thrive, where homes are affordable, jobs are accessible, infrastructure is resilient, and nature is protected. In a time of rapid change and rising expectations, the role of planning has never been more important. It is not just a regulatory function, it is a public service with the power to shape the future.

2. A Decade of Drift – And What Comes Next

The past decade has been marked by a slow erosion of local planning capacity and influence. While the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was intended to simplify and streamline the planning system, it also signalled a shift towards greater centralisation. The replacement of more flexible, locally responsive guidance with a prescriptive national framework has, in many cases, reduced the ability of local authorities to shape development in ways that reflect the unique needs and aspirations of their communities. At the same time, the legal and regulatory environment has become increasingly complex. Layers of legislation, some inherited from EU directives, others added through piecemeal reform, have created a system that is often difficult to navigate, particularly for under-resourced planning teams. This complexity has not been matched by investment in skills or capacity. On the contrary, a decade of austerity has hollowed out local planning departments, leading to smaller teams, reduced expertise, and a growing reliance on external consultants.

The result is a planning system that is often reactive rather than strategic, focused on managing immediate pressures rather than shaping long-term outcomes. Many local authorities have struggled to maintain up-to-date local plans, let alone engage in the kind of forward-looking, cross-boundary planning that is now urgently needed.

Yet despite this challenging backdrop, Graham Nelson is optimistic about what lies ahead. He believes the next few years will bring a level of change and opportunity not seen in a generation. Strategic planning is making a comeback, driven by the need to coordinate housing, infrastructure, and economic development at a regional scale. Devolution is accelerating, with more powers and funding being transferred to combined authorities and local partnerships. And crucially, access to funding is increasingly tied to the quality of local evidence, strategic alignment, and the ability to demonstrate impact.

For planners, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to rebuild capacity, restore confidence, and reassert the value of planning as a strategic function. The opportunity is to shape the future of place in a way that is ambitious, inclusive, and grounded in local knowledge.

To seize this moment, local authorities must invest in their planning teams, not just in terms of headcount, but in skills, leadership, and data capability. They must also strengthen collaboration across boundaries, sectors, and disciplines. The future of planning will not be delivered in silos; it will depend on partnerships that can align local priorities with national ambitions and deliver outcomes that matter to communities.

3. Leadership in Planning: Holding the Line and Looking Ahead

Leadership in planning today demands a delicate balance between managing immediate pressures and maintaining a clear, long-term strategic vision. In an environment shaped by political volatility, resource constraints, and rising public expectations, planning leaders must navigate complexity with confidence, clarity, and resilience. Graham Nelson emphasised that effective leadership is not just about technical competence, it’s about empowering teams to look beyond the day-to-day firefighting and engage with the opportunities that lie ahead. This means fostering a culture of ambition, curiosity, and adaptability within planning departments, even when resources are stretched and workloads are high.

The temptation to focus solely on short-term delivery is understandable. Many planning teams are under pressure to process applications quickly, respond to appeals, and meet housing targets. But if all energy is directed toward operational firefighting, there is a risk that strategic planning, the kind that shapes places for decades to come, will be neglected.

Strong planning leadership involves making deliberate choices about where to invest time and capacity. It means allocating resources not only to meet immediate demands but also to build robust evidence bases, develop future-ready local plans, and strengthen regional partnerships. It requires leaders to advocate for planning within their organisations, ensuring that it is recognised as a strategic function rather than a transactional service.

It also involves navigating political dynamics with skill and diplomacy. Planning leaders must work closely with elected members to understand their priorities, manage expectations, and build consensus around long-term goals. They must be able to articulate the value of planning in delivering wider agendas, such as climate resilience, inclusive growth, and infrastructure investment, and ensure that these are embedded in decision-making processes.

Ultimately, leadership in planning is about holding the line when necessary, but also knowing when to adapt, collaborate, and innovate. It’s about creating the conditions in which planners can thrive, where they are supported to think strategically, engage with communities, and shape places that are sustainable, inclusive, and future-proof.

4. Strategic Planning in Action: The Norwich Case Study

Few examples illustrate the power of strategic planning more clearly than the long-term collaboration in Norwich. Graham Nelson’s experience in the region offers a compelling case study of how sustained, cross-boundary cooperation can overcome political and legal obstacles to deliver transformative outcomes. Norwich’s administrative geography has long posed challenges. The city itself is under bounded, with many of its functional suburbs falling within neighbouring district councils. This could easily have led to fragmented planning and competing priorities. Instead, three local authorities, Norwich City, Broadland, and South Norfolk, chose to work together. Over two decades, they developed and maintained joint local plans that treated the urban area as a single, coherent entity.

This collaboration was not without its trials. The first joint core strategy faced a high-profile legal challenge, known as the Hurd case, which questioned the soundness of strategic growth proposals to the north of the city. Rather than collapse under pressure, the councils regrouped, revisited the evidence, and re-engaged with the examination process. Their resilience ensured that the strategy was salvaged and refined, rather than abandoned.

The result was a major urban extension, supported by the delivery of the Northern Distributor Road, now known as Broadland Northway. This infrastructure project unlocked land for 10,000 new homes and was underpinned by a city deal and a pooled community infrastructure levy. Crucially, the road was delivered ahead of the housing, demonstrating a proactive approach to infrastructure-led development.

Today, the benefits of this strategic planning effort are visible on the ground. New communities are emerging, well-connected to the city and supported by infrastructure that was planned and funded collaboratively. The economic and social impact is significant, and the model offers valuable lessons for other authorities grappling with growth, boundaries, and resource constraints. Norwich’s experience shows that strategic planning is not just about documents and frameworks, it’s about relationships, resilience, and long-term vision. It demonstrates that with political will, professional leadership, and a shared commitment to place, even the most complex planning challenges can be overcome.

5. Collaboration and Alignment: Building ‘Team Norwich’

In today’s planning landscape, collaboration is no longer a desirable trait, it is an operational necessity. The complexity of place-making, the scale of housing and infrastructure challenges, and the interconnected nature of climate, economic, and social agendas demand joined-up thinking and shared leadership. Graham Nelson’s experience in Norwich offers a compelling example of how collaboration can be embedded into the DNA of a place.

Norwich’s success was not just about technical planning, it was about building trust, fostering relationships, and aligning diverse interests around a common vision. The city’s planning leadership worked closely with neighbouring councils, anchor institutions, local businesses, and civic organisations to create what Graham described as “Team Norwich”, a collective identity focused on delivering outcomes for the place, rather than individual gain. This collaborative culture enabled the council to secure significant funding through initiatives like the Towns Deal. Norwich was not only among the first authorities to receive funding, but also one of the fastest to deliver completed projects. This was possible because the groundwork had already been laid: shared priorities, mature relationships, and a clear strategic direction.

Crucially, planning in Norwich was aligned with wider agendas, housing delivery, climate resilience, economic growth, and infrastructure investment. This alignment ensured that planning was not siloed, but integrated into broader conversations about the city’s future. It also meant that planning proposals were more likely to attract support from government, investors, and the community. For other local authorities, the lesson is clear: collaboration must be intentional, strategic, and sustained. It requires time, political leadership, and a willingness to compromise. But the rewards, greater funding, faster delivery, and stronger public trust, are well worth the effort.

6. What Needs to Change: Narrative and Legislation

As the planning system stands at a crossroads, Graham Nelson’s call for change is both timely and necessary. His reflections highlight two fundamental shifts that must occur if planning is to fulfil its potential as a driver of sustainable, inclusive growth. The first is a shift in narrative. For too long, planning has been framed, particularly in national discourse, as a barrier to progress. Planners are often portrayed as bureaucratic “blockers,” slowing down housing delivery and frustrating economic development. This characterisation is not only inaccurate, it is damaging. It undermines public confidence, erodes professional morale, and distracts from the real structural issues affecting delivery. Graham argued that this narrative must be replaced with one of partnership. Planners are not obstacles, they are enablers. They are the professionals who ensure that growth is sustainable, infrastructure is aligned, and communities are shaped with care and foresight. Reframing the role of planning as a collaborative, place-based discipline is essential to restoring trust and attracting the next generation of talent into the profession.

The second area for reform is the legislative framework itself. Over decades, planning law has become increasingly convoluted, layered with amendments, exceptions, and overlapping requirements. Even experienced practitioners can find it difficult to navigate. This complexity consumes time, increases risk, and diverts attention from strategic thinking.

Graham’s view is that even without radical reform, a consolidation and simplification of the existing legislation would be a game-changer. By streamlining the legal framework, bringing clarity, consistency, and coherence, government could significantly reduce the administrative burden on local authorities and unlock capacity for more proactive, creative planning. Together, these two changes, reframing the narrative and reforming the legal structure, would go a long way toward restoring confidence in the planning system. They would empower planners to focus on what matters most: shaping places that are liveable, resilient, and fit for the future.

Conclusion: Planning Power in Practice

Graham Nelson’s insights offer a timely and practical roadmap for planners navigating the turbulence of reform, resource constraints, and rising expectations. His reflections cut through the noise and remind us of the enduring value of planning as a strategic public service, one that shapes not just places, but futures.

The message is clear: planning is not the problem, it is part of the solution. When properly resourced and strategically led, planning enables growth, protects communities, and delivers long-term value. It is the mechanism through which local government can respond to national priorities with locally grounded, evidence-based strategies.

Leadership in planning means more than managing workloads, it means holding the line against short-term pressures while keeping sight of long-term goals. It requires empowering teams, building resilience, and investing in the capacity to think and act strategically.

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Collaboration is no longer optional. It is the foundation of successful planning in today’s complex landscape. Whether it’s working across council boundaries, engaging anchor institutions, or aligning with national agendas, planners must build alliances that unlock funding, accelerate delivery, and foster trust. Strategic planning works. The Norwich case study proves that with vision, persistence, and partnership, even the most challenging planning environments can deliver transformative outcomes. It shows that long-term thinking, when backed by strong relationships and robust evidence, leads to real impact on the ground.

But for planning to thrive, the system itself must evolve. The legislative framework needs simplification, and the public narrative around planning must shift, from obstruction to partnership, from delay to delivery. Planners must be recognised not just as regulators, but as enablers of growth and stewards of place quality. As we enter a period of rapid change, planners must hold their nerve. They must lead with confidence, collaborate with purpose, and stay focused on unlocking the potential of place. The future of planning is not just about policy, it’s about power. The power to shape communities, drive inclusive growth, and deliver a better quality of life for all.

This blog post was sponsored by Local Partnerships LLP, who help local authorities to deliver projects and implement changes efficiently. They offer expertise in climate adaptation, energy efficiency, waste management, housing, infrastructure, procurement, and digital transformation, ensuring excellent value for money and meeting key priorities.

Key Takeaways for Local Government Planners

To navigate the evolving planning landscape and unlock the full potential of place, local government planners should:

• Invest in strategic planning capacity

  Build resilient teams and future-ready plans, today’s investment will shape tomorrow’s outcomes.

• Strengthen cross-boundary collaboration

  Forge partnerships and shared evidence bases to prepare for devolution and regional growth strategies.

• Balance short-term pressures with long-term vision

  Avoid reactive planning, stay focused on strategic goals that deliver lasting impact.

• Foster a culture of collaboration

  Engage anchor institutions, businesses, and communities to co-create solutions and unlock funding.

• Champion reform and reframe the narrative

  Advocate for legislative simplification and promote planning as a proactive, enabling force for growth.