Strategic Growth

The Strategic Growth Group has been in existence in various forms for over 20 years. The primary focus of the group is to support forces as they engage with planning authorities and developers, applying for Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions. These are sought to mitigate the direct operational impacts on policing services arising from large-scale housing developments.

As part of its work, closer links have been established with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) together with other emergency service organisations such as the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE); such links enable a single emergency services response to this important planning related issue. The group has also developed links with members of the House of Lords, at ministerial level in the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) and the Home Office (HO) to ensure that the infrastructure requirements of the emergency services are suitably recognised in such documents as the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

A change of government also means that the lobbying campaign to reform England’s planning system needs to be restarted to ensure the necessary reform is secured.  The primary objective of this campaign is to ensure that the police and other emergency services do not miss out on millions of pounds of funding every year.  To achieve this, we will need to secure a legislative definition of infrastructure that includes the emergency services, with reference to Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), within the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill.  Previously, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act (LURA) recognised the emergency services, but given the new government has announced that CIL will not be continued, the campaign will need to be reorientated and reinvigorated to reflect the current political climate.