Planning System Changes Challenged

The House Builders Federation (HBF) has said that the changes made by the Government to the planning system are likely to fail.

The Government announcement, “Planning System Must Be Fast But Fair”, reduces the planning appeals time from six months to three months, increases the level of consultation between planning departments and Regional Development Agencies and requires planning authorities to provide reasons for granting planning permissions.

Although the HBF welcomes a 'faster and fairer system' they believe these new requirements could have the opposite effect. Delays in approvals have been blamed on inefficiencies caused by under-funding and under-staffing but workloads will increase under these changes. Currently just 16% of major applications are approved by planning authorities within the eight week limit but the Government target is 60%.

The HBF doesn’t believe that an increase in workload will alleviate the current delays.

Source: HBF