Planning inspectors may be small in number, but they have a crucial say in our country’s development. Head of profession Rynd Smith tells Matthew O’Toole what qualities they need
Planning inspectors are, it must be said, not one of government’s most prominent professional groupings. All 337 of them are based in one agency: the Planning Inspectorate, which has responsibility for both handling planning appeals in England and Wales, and examining the merits of local authority and regional planning proposals before they are adopted.
However, while it may not be as mainstream as some of its peers, the profession has a longer history than most of them. The head of the profession, Rynd Smith (pictured above), points out that the Planning Inspectorate and its predecessor bodies have been handling planning appeals for just over 100 years, having been founded in 1909. “For 100 years there’s been the principle that if a local authority makes a planning decision that the person who owns the land doesn’t like, they can appeal.”
The breadth of the planning appeal process means that inspectors require competence and sensitivity in a wide range of subjects, from the ecological to the economic to the cultural. Perhaps it’s for this reason that, as Smith points out, planning inspectors come from a “very diverse” range of backgrounds. Although a high proportion of inspectors come from established planning and surveying careers, many do not. “We’ve also got architects, engineers of a whole range of varieties, heritage professionals, ecologists, economists, lawyers,” Smith explains. “All of these disciplines are relevant to the taking of planning decisions.” However, planners with certifications from the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors do predominate in the profession.
Rynd Smith himself is a former head of policy at the RTPI, but says that even experienced planners require specific training once they join the inspectorate. “We provide them with a rigorous onward training programme that is actually about saying: ‘Yes, you are a highly qualified chartered planner or chartered surveyor or whatever you are, and we are now going to develop in you the skills of the practising planning inspector’.”
Central to that endeavour, he explains, is understanding the principles of natural justice and judicial process – not least to avoid exposing decisions to judicial review. “It’s critically important that the additional core training is provided to all who come in,” Smith says. “We have a confidence and progression system that begins with people doing relatively minor cases that only require written responses, under fairly close supervision.”
If the inspectors successfully rise through the grades, they can become principal housing and planning inspectors and, as Smith says, be responsible for inquiries “of great significance for the future of a region or indeed the nation”.
However, the creation of the new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), set up to streamline approval for major projects such as power stations, reservoirs and motorways, will slightly reduce the caseload of the inspectorate. Previously, the Planning Inspectorate had frequently overseen public inquiries on these developments before they went to the relevant cabinet minister for final approval, but now the entire scrutiny and approval regime will be handled by the IPC. Smith says there are only “a few folk who are in the process of migrating” to work in the commission, but stresses that the new authority has a distinctly different overall function to the inspectorate: the IPC will make decisions from “first base”, as opposed to being focused on appeals. He may be clear on the differing role, but if the Tories – who have opposed the IPC – are elected, they plan to return the transferred responsibilities to the inspectorate.
Smith is keen to point out that one of the key features of planning inspectors, and the inspectorate itself, is separation from the policymaking process. There’s good reason to make the distinction clear, since planning inspectors must be seen to be removed from the planners in central and local government, whose proposals they are charged with independently judging. So independence of mind is a key characteristic required of inspectors, the head of profession says. “They are people who, when standing in front of a public inquiry, would leave no party in any doubt that this is a confident, consummate professional in whose impartiality you can trust.”
That said, Smith stresses his close relationship with Steve Quartermain, the government’s chief planner, who sits in the Communities and Local Government department and leads the informal planning policy profession. While they draw on common sources for their staff, the skill sets needed in post are rather different, says Smith: “The skills that he requires are focused on policy, whereas the skills that I require are much more to do with decision-making in the light of policy – so our skills needs are broader.” What’s more, the public aspects of planning inspection means Smith’s men and women need well-developed social skills, which are less essential in office-based policy people.
Overall, Smith is convinced that most people who become inspectors are pleased with their decision. “I’m very proud of the fact that many come to this organisation, and tell us we are their employer of choice.”