Catalogue description Records of Planning Divisions

The Ministry of Health in 1919 inherited a town planning inspector from the Local Government Board. The ministry was concerned only with the exercise of town planning powers by local authorities. The Town and Country Planning Act 1932 removed this restriction and strengthened the powers of the planning authorities.

The director of the Planning Division was also director of the Housing Department. An integrated Housing and Town Planning Inspectorate was established. In June 1942 on the transfer of statutory planning functions to the Ministry of Works and Planning the division was dissolved and some of the staff transferred to that ministry.

Among the functions of the new Ministry of Works and Buildings was the co-ordination of the government building programme, the control of all civil building and the co-ordination of planning for the post-war physical reconstruction of town and country.

There was no transfer of planning powers, these remaining with the Ministry of Health and the Scottish Office. A small Reconstruction Group was formed, and the minister appointed the Scott and Uthwatt Committees to investigate problems of reconstruction and land use.

A committee of the Privy Council consisting of the Minister of Works and Buildings, the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Scotland was established in July 1941 to secure compatibility between the administration of statutory planning functions and long term planning policy, but considerable overlapping existed between these two spheres and between the work of the Reconstruction Group.

An Interdepartmental Advisory Committee on Reconstruction and a Consultative Panel on Physical Reconstruction were also set up in 1941 by the Minister of Works and Buildings. The committee was to help him in preparing a scheme of work preparatory to the formulation of planning machinery, to advise him on the inter-relationship between parts of this work and enquiries already contemplated or in progress, and to suggest how the various parts of the work could be best undertaken.

A special Reconstruction Areas Group composed partly of members of the panel was also formed to provide expert advice on problems involved in the redevelopment of damaged urban areas.

Also in 1941, the Nuffield College Social Reconstruction Survey was asked to undertake an enquiry into the effects of the war upon the distribution of industry and population, the working of public social services and upon human conditions; and the bearing of these factors on the general problem of social and economic reorganisation, and on the practical efficacy of local government institutions and voluntary organisations.

In February 1942 a central planning authority was proposed to the War Cabinet, but was rejected in favour of the transfer of statutory planning powers from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Works and Buildings, which took place in July 1942. This brought together all physical planning policy for England and Wales under a retitled Ministry of Works and Planning. The Planning Division of the Ministry of Health was taken over and merged with the Reconstruction Group.

An Advisory Committee on Reconstruction was appointed by the Minister of Works and Buildings to make recommendations on the best machinery for a central planning authority and the local administration of planning legislation. Its members could not agree on the form of a proposed independent planning authority. It was decided to create a new government department, and in February 1943 the planning divisions of the ministry were removed to form the Ministry of Town and Country Planning. The Ministry of Works and Buildings was renamed the Ministry of Works.

The Town and Country Planning (Interim Development) Act 1943 extended development control to the whole of England and Wales for the first time, and the Town and Country Planning Act 1944 gave local authorities power to buy land for planning purposes, especially in war-damaged areas.

These powers were extended by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947.

In addition to dealing with the question of land betterment by establishing the Central Land Board, the act introduced a comprehensive system of planning control.

The planning authorities were required to draw up development plans for their areas by 1951. The department became responsible for the co-ordination of local development plans. The minister had the power to call in any planning application and deal with it personally and heard appeals against decisions of local planning authorities.

The 1947 act also brought in strong planning controls on mineral extraction. The control was exercised by the local authorities subject to the general supervision of the minister and his right to call in and hear appeals.

Planning divisions were taken over from the Ministry of Town and Country Planning in 1951. Initially, administrative planning work was split between two divisions. One dealt with London and the home counties and one with the provinces. General planning matters were handled in this way but certain specialist subjects were divided between them without regard to area.

From 1962 the number of planning divisions gradually increased. Contributory factors were the greater emphasis on urban planning to cope with the problem of traffic in towns and the absorption of work previously undertaken by the New Towns Division and the Minerals Division.

In 1965 access to the countryside and related work passed to the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources. On the return of these responsibilities to the Minister of Housing and Local Government in 1967 a separate Countryside Division was established. On the abolition of the Department of Economic Affairs in 1969 and the appointment of a Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning the work of the planning divisions was widened to include, not only environmental planning, but economic planning at regional and local levels.

Also in 1969 responsibility was also taken over from the Board of Trade and Ministry of Housing and Local Government for administration of the Control of Office and Industrial Development Act 1965. By 1970, although a separate New Towns Division had re-emerged, the entire range of environmental and economic administrative planning work was spread over 7 divisions, A to G.

The Department of the Environment inherited the 7 planning divisions from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1970 and added another, Planning Division G. The new Secretary of State for the Environment was assisted by three junior ministers, one of whom had responsibility for planning. In 1976 after a reorganisation of the ministerial structure of the department, the post of Minister for Planning and Local Government was abolished, the post's functions being transferred to the newly created Minister for Housing and Construction.