Member

I anticipate what I hope the noble Lord, Lord Best, will be able to add in relation to Scotland, where such a statutory role has been implemented. Pam Ewen, the chief planner at Fife Council, said, “The role helps get planning and planners at the top table in local government”. She added, “The role has been positively received and implemented in Scotland. It has not raised issues; rather, it has positively highlighted the importance of planning”. I submit to the Minister that, if she wants to raise the role of planning, to put planning reform at the top table in local government and to see the planning reforms deliver—I am sure she does—a statutory chief planner role would be an instrument to enable those things to happen.