It must have been little comfort for the staff of Planning Aid England who were made redundant last week that the government confirmed a temporary funding reprieve for the service at the eleventh hour.
The organisation was one of four bodies that originally received a share of £3.2 million from the government to help local groups developing neighbourhood plans last year.
At the time planning minister Greg Clark said: “It is vital that grassroots community groups are able to access specialist support and advice if their vision for their neighbourhood is to be truly realised. ”
As the 12-month contract under the Supporting Communities and Neighbourhoods in Planning fund came to a close the four bodies were invited to bid for an extra four months extension. But the contracts ended last Friday without any new written contracts being issued. For Planning Aid it meant 10 of its 12 staff lost their jobs and its community outreach work is on hold.
Although the groups received last minute calls from the government to say that it would extend funding, there is little they can do until they get the cash in hand.
Two of the groups – Locality and the Prince’s Foundation – were already turning away new applications for neighbourhood planning support in February because of the uncertainty around the scheme’s future.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said it will be making announcements about the new support arrangements from August 2012 “in due course”.
But timing seems pretty poor in terms of maintaining momentum on neighbourhood planning. There will be a gap of at least a few months on the support services just as the government’s new powers on neighbourhood planning come into force this Friday.
The government has said that it is reviewing the support available, dangling the promise of additional funding in the future but who knows how far this will go.
While the government had stumped up to £20,000 for each of its 233 neighbourhood planning frontrunner projects, it seems funding decisions on support services for community planning always come down to the wire.
It has also emerged that the DCLG wants the groups to alter the type of support the groups offer on neighbourhood planning.
Locality had offered free tailored support for community groups on neighbourhood planning and run events. But manager Carole Reilly told Planning this week it would not be offering “more of the same” but would instead produce a guide on neighbourhood planning to give technical support to local groups.
Another of the bodies, Campaign to Protect Rural England, said it would be offering a “slightly different” service because the DCLG had asked it to “tweak” its offering. The spokesman declined to comment on how the service would differ but previously it has offered online resources, a helpline, free training events and other publications.
A Prince’s Foundation spokesman said the additional four months of funding will allow it to continue its “popular” programme and allow those communities currently on its waiting list the opportunity to be helped under the scheme.
If neighbourhood planning support services are to continue without any more stop-starts the government needs to commit a decent amount of cash for a decent length of time.
Follow Susanna on Twitter at @SusannaMillar