No less than 29 national organisations have joined together to warn the Government that its plans to reduce all planning to the local level will damage infrastructure provision and leave the environment unprotected.
The unprecedented move has seen the 29 bodies, led by the Royal Town Planning Institute, write to communities secretary Eric Pickles to seek a meeting to discuss the need for strategic planning.
They say communities need planning beyond the local level to plan infrastructure and to protect the environment.
"The most pressing issues facing the nation, for example, such as the housing crisis, economic recovery, climate change and biodiversity loss, cannot be dealt with solely at a local level," said RTPI president Ann Skippers.
"We have come together to offer to work with the coalition government and local authorities to help to develop thinking, policies and systems for planning to encourage and support joint planning across local authority boundaries so that the localism agenda may be used to enable democratic strategic planning to take place."
The letter notes recent support for joint local authority working on local enterprise and regional growth but says some of the reforms will hit housing, enterprise, climate change adaptation, renewable energy and biodiversity.
"We will engage with Government in this process in a positive, constructive manner and are committed to fresh thinking that may, on occasion, be challenging to all sides in this discussion," says the letter.
"Part of this challenge will be in highlighting where aspects of planning reform may do damage to the longer term well-being of the nation."
A wide range of planning, property, regeneration, environmental and construction bodies have added their support, although notable absentees included the Home Builders Federation and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Environmental Protection UK chief executive James Grugeon said thinking needed to be developed on local environmental quality issues including air quality, noise and protection of soil resources.
