Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4)

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) welcomed the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the draft fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4). The National Planning Framework (NPF) is a long-term plan for Scotland that sets out where development and infrastructure is needed.

Our response was facilitated through an RSE working group which included RSE Fellows and members of the Young Academy of Scotland with significant practitioner and research experience across academia and the planning, economic, health, heritage, development, engineering, and third sectors.

RSE advice paper, Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) (117KB, PDF)

Summary

The pre-eminent contexts of NPF4 are the climate and biodiversity crises and the need for planned and positive de-growth. These unprecedented challenges require not only a vision but a policy-directed approach to future investment in infrastructure and existing assets, with aligned and effective delivery structures focussed on low carbon and circular economy investment and decision making.

RSE acknowledges that Scottish Government intends to consult to develop a delivery programme to accompany NPF4 but that the scale of transformational change linked to NPF4 is unprecedented, and to launch a planning framework without having thoroughly validated its deliverability and affordability carries the inherent risk of the planning framework being unrealistic from the outset. RSE, therefore, urges that this is used as an opportunity to review existing delivery blockages and failures in policy and investment and determine how collectively and effectively the public and private sector can work to achieve a fairer, green future at all scales.

The present planning system sits at the heart of this process and needs to be resourced and empowered to facilitate the essential step changes required in the present approach to development and investment if Scotland is to achieve net zero.

Whilst the aspirational targets, objectives, and visions set out in the draft fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) are laudable, the RSE has concerns over the deliverability and affordability of the solutions required to, for example, achieve Scotland’s target of achieving net zero emissions by 2045.

NPF4 presents a range of desirable, nationally significant developments, but not a concrete delivery plan. A detailed delivery plan (including the identification of major ‘place’ delivery vehicles and partnerships, an indicative capital investment programme, and audits of any additional local resources and skills required to deliver spatial investment plans) should be developed to provide a clear framework for stakeholders to engage with, underpinned by meaningful multi-level support. The Irish Government’s National Planning Framework, which is supported by a 10-year Capital Investment Plan and assigns responsibility for its delivery at a Ministerial level, represents a model the Scottish Government could adopt.

NPF4’s spatial diagrams should be revised to overcome a lack of alignment with traditional administrative boundaries and move away from reductive interpretations of place, to appreciate its complex, multifaceted nature and to facilitate the development of place-specific developments tailored to local geographies and socio-economic conditions.

NPF4’s spatial principles should be revised to unpack any synergies between prin-ciples, and their connections to other sections of the framework.

A stakeholder mapping exercise should be undertaken to provide clarity over re-sponsibilities for the delivery of NPF4’s goals.

There is a lack of coherent interaction between NPF4 goals. A holistic plan should be developed which enables interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaboration to articulate and account for the trade-offs of striving to achieve multiple objectives. Indeed, the joint consideration of objectives would be best improved by developing coherent policy narratives and missions. Available evidence should then be used to monitor progress made against agreed and explicit objectives, and subsequently inform decision-making.

NPF4 should adopt a proactive and future-focused development approach which accounts for the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises, the potential of Artificial Intelligence and big data solutions, and wider societal needs such as the wellbeing economy and shifting work patterns.

NPF4 should be grounded in the needs of individual communities as well as the nation more generally. As such, inclusive mechanisms that incorporate all relevant stakeholders in the design and delivery of projects, from briefing stage through to securing community ownership, are required to re-shape NPF4’s development process, which is often misaligned with strategic planning aims and not supported at local level.

The RSE would welcome the opportunity to further engage with the development and implementation of NPF4.

Pertinent themes of the draft Fourth National Planning Framework

Two subsequent roundtable discussions – which included Fellows, Young Academy of Scotland members, and representatives from key external stakeholders – were subsequently held to explore pertinent themes of the draft NPF4 in more detail:

Ultimately, whilst the aspirational targets, objectives, and visions set out in the draft fourth National Planning Framework are laudable, the RSE has concerns over the deliverability and affordability of the solutions required to, for example, achieve Scotland’s target of achieving net zero emissions by 2045. NPF4 should adopt a proactive and future-focused development approach which accounts for the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises, the potential of Artificial Intelligence and big data solutions, and wider societal needs such as the wellbeing economy and shifting work patterns.

The pre-eminent contexts of NPF4 are the climate and biodiversity crises and the need for planned and positive de-growth. These unprecedented challenges require not only a vision but a policy-directed approach to future investment in infrastructure and existing assets, with aligned and effective delivery structures focussed on low carbon and circular economy investment and decision making.

The present planning system sits at the heart of this process and needs to be resourced and empowered to facilitate the essential step changes required in the present approach to development and investment if Scotland is to achieve net-zero.

Download this policy advice paper

RSE advice paper, fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) (117KB, PDF)