Planning for transitions? Exploring the interface between planning, politics and grassroots sustainability transitions

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The UK government declared a climate emergency in May 2019. As of February 2020, 269 out of 408 (65%) District, County, Unitary and Metropolitan Councils declared a Climate Emergency, as well as eight Combined Authorities/City Regions (Climate Emergency, 2020). In June 2019, national government set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, compared to the previous one of at least an 80% reduction by that date. The planning process has a significant role to play in promoting a sustainable approach to land management in built and natural environments (Williams, 2013, Carroli, 2018; Smedby and Quitzau, 2016). For instance, should the Environment Bill and Agriculture Bills receive Royal Assent, planning could help deliver 'public good' benefits (where environmental enhancements are rewarded by government policy, such as improved soil and water quality) or net-biodiversity gain (leaving the environment and habitats in a better condition than before development). These moves are heralded as a step-change (HMG, 2020) and could well support a move towards, or transition to, more 'sustainable' development patterns; however, these are relatively new concepts that planning authorities will need to adapt to. My PhD research on Frome, a market town in Somerset, South West England has important lessons for local democracy and environmental action. Frome town council is, since 2011, controlled by a group of local people under the guise of the 'Independents for Frome (IfF)' group. IfF is a non-party-political organisation and, by bypassing party-politics, has achieved many positive initiatives by breaking the mould of adversarial, divisive forms of party-politics; including reconstructing the administration of the town council towards non-partisan Ways of Working. Many initiatives under IfF, such as seeking to bestow 'nature rights' on the local River Frome, are what some scholars and activists term the 'Commons' - the community-management of resources with societal and environmental benefits. Frome's experiences and reasons for success can provide insights in how to capture and reorientate local institutions towards environmental benefits and social wellbeing. Frome's story also reveals the politics and the tensions of 'independent' actors challenging established institutions, particularly when using rights that promised to deliver power to ordinary people under the government's Localism policy agenda. For instance, my PhD found that Neighbourhood Planning strongly filtered the amount of power available at the lowest tiers of government due to the way the Planning system operates, whilst entrenching some local power networks. This Fellowship would work with and bring together identified stakeholders within community development, politics and planning through two workshops to broaden discussions on the role of planning for transitions. The first workshop, hosted at DRIFT (a widely respected consortium of cutting-edge academics and a key node in European transition networks) would explore and broaden the more theoretical lines of my PhD to probe the dynamics of sustainability in transitions (see Case for Support, PhD Summary). Tying in European developments to environmental governance to those in England would refine the papers I plan to write during the Fellowship, allowing a critical account of the politics of planning for transitions at different scales. The second workshop on the English context would deepen our understanding of how the mechanisms of planning are affected by the politics of local governance. Engaging different actors to share insights, frustrations and opportunities across 'scales' and 'sectors' could help to overcome institutional silos and encourage collaborative approaches to cultivate and capture sustainability transitions. Working with think tanks and policy actors would 'level up' these discussions towards concrete actions, supporting a framework for lesson learning and policy transfer.