The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
New strategy for planning a better, greener Scotland
Ablueprint laid before MSPs earlier this month (November 10) sets out how a new approach to planning will help to achieve a net-zero Scotland by 2045.
The draft National Planning Network 4 (NPF4) document was also published by the Scottish Government for consultation.
Sarah Baillie, partner and head of planning and infrastructure consenting in Scotland at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, said: “Following recent planning reform, it now has enhanced legal status and will play a central role in day-to-day land use decision-making.
“The draft says the country must ‘embrace and deliver radical change’ in order to tackle and adapt to the changing climate, restore biodiversity loss, improve health and wellbeing, build up the economy and create great places.”
Ms Baillie added: “There is a new approach to decision-making, with
significant weight to the global climate emergency in development, to minimise emissions and enhance biodiversity. This is also evident throughout its draft policies.
“There’s a strong message of policy support for all forms of low carbon and green energy, not just wind and solar but also for those wanting to develop net-zero energy transition assets including hydrogen, energy storage, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and floating offshore wind.
“Together with strategic renewable electricity generation
and transmission infrastructure across the country to support this delivery, this all presents significant opportunities and confidence for those
developing and investing in the energy sector in Scotland.”
The mainstream development and property sector will require time to digest and consider the “vast transformational breadth and depth” of the document’s potential impacts, she said.
She added: “What’s clear is this framework could trigger a huge range of challenges and opportunities, as it seeks to change entirely the way our society and economy operates.
“Investors and developers will need to take savvy commercial decisions, making more extensive considerations on their climate change, environmental and biodiversity impacts of the location and type of proposed development.
“With one of the six
special strategies being the ‘just transition’, it’s no surprise there is an emphasis on brownfield redevelopment, and repurposing or rejuvenating buildings.
“Those hoping to develop or invest in new out-of-town retail and leisure or on greenfield land perhaps will have to seriously rethink.”
Ms Baillie said there was already “a bit of a renaissance” taking place in some economically important locations around Scotland, including the Clyde estuary, Aberdeen harbour and the waterfront areas of Edinburgh and Dundee.
“These are recognised as national strategic development assets, having a key role to play in Scotland’s economic future and the transition to net zero,” she said.
“The cornerstone is to create sustainable places. There is a real sense of an embedment of social policy, with importance also being placed on human rights, engaging communities, collaboration and to use planning to support community wealthbuilding.”
Fiona Gordon, managing associate
in the planning and infrastructure consenting team at Addleshaw Goddard, said: “The real questions for those involved in development in Scotland are how this quantum shift will be managed, and financed.”
Ms Gordon added: “The ultimate goal is achieving ‘20-minute neighbourhoods’, sustainable communities where residents can walk to every service and facility needed to live, thereby minimising the need to travel.
“In order to achieve this kind of revolution, Scotland will require massive investment in both new infrastructure and facilities.”
Covid-19 has exposed social inequalities which have long existed across Scotland, Ms Gordon said.
She continued: “The
Scottish Government sees the planning system as playing a major role in seeking to address these inequalities.
“By attempting to direct investment towards rural communities and incentivising the development of brownfield sites in urban centres, the desired outcome is the creation of better opportunities across the country.
“If this progresses, our planning system would go through a huge stepchange.”
Ms Baillie said: “Every page you turn – sustainability, net zero and the just transition are the obvious key drivers – indicates Scotland is ahead of other planning jurisdictions in the UK and perhaps globally in terms of moving to effect those changes.”