Changes to make the planning system "faster and fairer" may have the opposite effect
A Faster, Fairer Planning System?
Changes to the planning system announced by the Government yesterday and
effective immediately, are likely to fail in their objectives, the House
Builders Federation has warned.
Entitled "Planning System Must Be Fast But Fair", the announcement reduces
the time for planning appeals from six months to three months, increases the
level of consultation required between planning departments and Regional
Development Agencies, and requires planning authorities to provide reasons
for granting planning permissions.
The House Builders Federation, whilst welcoming the stated objective of a
'faster and fairer system', believes the new requirements could have the
opposite effect.
Federation spokesman Pierre Williams, said: "The overall stated intention of
this Government is to tackle Britain's chronic shortage of housing which has
largely been brought about by the failures of the planning system: in short,
to achieve delivery.
"Local planning authorities have long blamed their inefficiency on being
under-funded under-staffed and overworked. But these changes simply increase
their workload.
"Reducing the time for appeals may sound like a drive to increase speed. But
with housing schemes becoming evermore complicated as a result of the drive
for sustainable, mixed-use and high-density development, much work looks set
to be wasted for failing to fit into the new reduced timeframe. This will
result in new applications having to start from scratch, resulting in plenty
of unnecessary duplication and even more delay before a start can be made.
"Planning authorities are processing just 16% of major applications within
the statutory eight week limit whilst the Government target is 60%. This
demonstrates the inability of the system to cope. How increasing the burden
on an over-loaded system can help is a mystery.
"Targets are not aspirational - they are meant to be achieved."