The island’s new Strategic Plan is already five years behind schedule, with one member warning it may not be in place until 2030, leaving only six years before another review is needed.
Lawrie Hooper told Tynwald during a debate on brownfield regeneration that the plan, intended to cover 2021 to 2036, had missed its target window.
He said: “We are now in 2026. This plan is already five years out of date today. By the time any new plan comes forward, it’ll be 2030 probably is a reasonable estimate. It’ll have six years left to run before they’ll need a new plan.”
He also criticised the absence of more detailed planning tools, saying: “Planning policy statements, comprehensive treatment areas, things that actually matter on the ground that will help developers, help redevelop brownfield sites, those are things that could be done much quicker, and they’re not being done.”
Ambition
Cabinet Office Minister David Ashford defended the process, arguing that the new plan represents a significant shift in ambition.
He said: “This new strategic plan that we are developing very much has to be about policy, about using the levers within the strategic plan to work the planning system to get not just development on our island, but the development that we believe we need.”
Treasury Minister Chris Thomas added context on the planning timeframe, stating: “The whole point of strategic planning is that you have five years in the past and then 10 years or 15 years in the future. You actually analyse the past to work out the future.”
Mr Ashford urged all members to engage with the process, saying it was “a chance for government to actually move the levers” on both incentives and disincentives for development.