Sarah Baillie, the Planning Partner at the International law firm, Addleshaw Goddard has published her views on the new planning bill that is expected to be introduced into the Scottish Parliament today. In her role at Addleshaw Goddard LLP, Sarah leads a planning team, based in Scotland, and is the only solicitor to be dual qualified as both a Law Society of Scotland Accredited Specialist in Planning Law and a Chartered Town Planner with a maintained membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
Sarah has said that the continuous commitment to the improvement of the planning system is great to see and the introduction of the Planning Bill will be beneficial for future developments. The Scottish economy is in need of a flexible, positive and effective planning system with will hopefully be introduced with implementation of this Bill when it is passed. Much work has been undertaken in this sector since 2015, Sarah believes that there will still be significant questions raised during the progress of the Bill through the Scottish Parliament to ensure that it is the most effective for everyone and there is a great deal more information needed about the specifics of the new legal implementation of new legal and policy mechanisms to be put in place, even if the Bill does go through.
It is thought that the challenge to deliver more houses that remain a good quality as well as the approach that has been taken to the provision of infrastructure is yet to be resolved. Sarah feels that these challenges can’t simply be left to the planning system to deal with and if there is to be a step change from a regulator to a more positive and active enabler of good quality development through the Planning Bill then there needs to be a major cultural change that cannot be carried out by the Bill alone.
