§ The Minister for Housing and Planning (Keith Hill)Planning aid is the provision of free and independent professional advice on town planning to groups or individuals in need of such advice and who cannot obtain it without an aid service. It is currently funded by the Royal Town Planning Institute and by grants and donations from public, private and charitable organisations but it is significantly under-resourced and stretched in respect of its current role. On 5 February 2003 the Deputy Prime Minister announced in "Sustainable communities: building for the future" that planning aid would receive up to £4 million of Government funding over the next three years to expand its service.
The enabling legislation supporting wider Office of Deputy Prime Minister spending on planning aid is contained in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill. The Bill received Second Reading on 17 December 2002,Official Report, column 729, and it was anticipated that Royal Assent would be received by September 2003. Funding for planning aid was expected to commence from 1 October 2003. However, as my hon. friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty) explained during the carry-over debate on the Bill on 10 June 2003, Official Report, column 564, the likely timescale for Royal Assent is now March 2004.
Planning aid needs to undergo a significant expansion programme to make it more proactive in engaging with communities who traditionally do not get involved in planning issues. The expansion programme is built on the findings of an Office of Deputy Prime Minister funded research study1 which concluded that there was a clear demand for an independent advisory service, but that planning aid was currently running almost permanently at close to breaking point. Delay in funding planning aid until March would severely undermine the good progress being made in this area.
An advance from the contingencies fund is being made available. Without the advance planning aid would be very likely to suffer the loss of key staff and volunteers, fracturing the current regional network. This, along with the loss of momentum brought about by the implementation programme, would set back plans to develop planning aid to a point where it might be difficult for it to recover for some time, even after funding became available.
1"planning aid: A review of its role and propects for development", ODPM, February 2003.
40WSParliamentary approval for additional resources for this new service will be sought in a later Estimate for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £554,000 will be met by repayable advances from the contingency fund.