The Partnership Agreement commitsthe Executive to “improve the planning system to strengthen involvement of communities,speed up decisions, reflect local views better and allow quicker investment decisions”.The modernisation programme builds on measures set out in the Conclusions of the Review of Strategic Planning and the white paper Your Place, Your Plan,copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. numbers22236 and 27246).We are currently consulting onproposals to improve the operation of public local inquiries and, by the end of the year, we expect to launch consultations on widening rights of appeal in planningand modernising the development...