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Planning applications: A faster and more responsive system Final Report November 2008 Planning applications: A faster and more responsive system Final Report November 2008 Published by Communities and Local Government on behalf of the Killian Pretty Review Department for Communities and Local Government Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU Telephone: 020 7944 4400 Website: www.communities.gov.uk © Crown Copyright 2008 Copyright in the typographical arrangement rests with the Crown. This publication, excluding logos, may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research, private study or for internal circulation within an organisation. This is subject to it being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the publication specified. Any other use of the contents of this publication would require a copyright licence. Please apply for a Click-Use Licence for core material at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/system/online/pLogin.asp, or by writing to the Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU. e-mail: [email protected] If you require this publication in an alternative format please email [email protected] November 2008 ISBN: 978 1 4098 07599 Planning Applications: A faster and more responsive system – Final Report Contents Page Foreword 3 Executive Summary 5 Our purpose 5 The key areas of concern with the current process 6 Developing solutions to address the concerns 6 How our recommended solutions will make the system work better for everyone 7 Making the process more proportionate 7 Making the process more effective 9 Improving engagement 12 Achieving changes in culture 14 Tackling Complexity 15 Overall impacts 17 Recommendations 20 1. Introduction 30 2. Making the process more proportionate 34 2.1 Reducing the number of developments that require full planning permission 35 2.1.1 Expanding the scope of permitted development 35 2.1.2 Encouraging the use of Local Development Orders 37 2.1.3 An intermediate form of approval process 38 2.2 Simplifying information requirements 46 2.3 Improving information for users of the system 53 3. Making the process more effective 60 3.1 Making best use of pre-application discussions 61 3.1.1 Improving the pre-application stage 63 3.1.2 Other important issues for the pre-application stage 69 3.2 Improving the way applications are handled once submitted 72 3.2.1 Facilitating consultation electronically 72 3.2.2 Improving the way applications are processed 73 3.3 Improving the use of planning conditions 75 1 3.4 Cutting the delays with planning obligations 80 3.5 Minor Amendments to Planning Permissions 85 3.6 Planning Appeals 86 4. Improving Engagement 87 4.1 Local planning authorities are required to involve a wide range of organisations in the planning application process 87 4.1.1 Who are the consultees? 87 4.1.2 The role of consultees in the process then needs to be clarified 91 4.1.3 Problems with over-consultation 94 4.1.4 Providing a better response 97 4.1.5 Accountability for advice 98 4.2 Council members need more clarity over their role 100 4.2.1 Training for elected members 100 4.2.2 Delegation of decision-making 102 4.2.3 For larger and/or more controversial developments, council members need to be involved at pre-application stage 104 4.3 We need to ensure developments meet the needs of the whole community 107 4.3.1 Better engagement of the community as a whole 107 4.3.2 Local planning authorities should be free to make their own decisions about how best to reach their community 110 4.3.3 An alternative way to solve disputes 113 5. Achieving changes in culture 119 5.1 Improving the quality of applications 119 5.2 Resources and skills 121 5.3 Incentivising an improved approach to applications 126 6. Tackling Complexity 134 Annex A - Terms of Reference 145 Annex B - Engagement Process 146 2 Planning Applications: A faster and more responsive system – Final Report Foreword The planning system is hugely important to us all and the process by which planning applications are actually dealt with within this system is a key component. This process helps to deliver critically important objectives, such as providing places to live and places to work for our growing population, delivering regeneration, tackling climate change and protecting our natural and historic environment. But it is also about helping individual citizens who want to improve the place that matters most to them – their home. We would probably all agree that we need a process that helps balance these competing pressures within a strong democratic framework, but one that works well, and delivers the right decisions in a fair, transparent and timely way. Yet, as we noted in our Call for Solutions , published back in June 2008, over recent years the system has had to cope with increasing complexity from an ever widening range of policy objectives that Government expects planning to deliver, a sharply increased number of applications (mainly from householders), a continued skill and resource shortage, and growing public awareness and interest in the development and use of land. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that we found wide frustration on the part of applicants, councils, interest groups and consultees about how the current applications process was operating and, to varying degrees, about how slow, unpredictable, and costly it had become for all involved. Our supporting research looked at 64 individual case studies of major developments. This revealed that over half encountered substantial problems, such as significant blockages and delays, during the processing of their planning applications. Of course, these problems can have a wider impact, including damaging our ability to compete internationally for new inward investment. New World Bank statistics show the UK is the 6th most attractive economy to invest in overall, yet is only 61st in relation to planning and building licenses. Given this context, the purpose of our review, was clear: we needed to identify and eliminate needless bureaucracy, root out unnecessary complexity, and make the system more responsive and customer focused, but in way that is consistent with the principles of, and objectives for, the planning system. To this end, our wide discussions with stakeholders were very encouraging. Not only was there much common ground about what the key issues were with the planning application process, but also a genuine willingness to explore how they might be tackled. We have set out 17 main recommendations. Each covers a key issue where improvement is needed, in many cases drawing upon existing good practice. In some instances the recommendations comprise a number of different action points and we have indicated who we believe should take forward each point. 3 Planning Applications: A faster and more responsive system – Final Report The recommendations are grouped into the key themes we identified in the Call for Solutions. Put simply we recommend: • The process is made more proportionate with more permitted development and streamlined processes for small scale development and streamlined information requirements where full planning permission is required; • The process is improved particularly in relation to pre-application and post decision stages, where some significant problems currently exist; • Engagement is made more effective by improvements in the way elected members, statutory and non statutory consultees and the wider community are involved in the process; • Changes in culture are encouraged by replacing time-based performance targets with a measure of customer satisfaction and by seeking ways to reward better quality applications; and • Unnecessary complexity is removed by making the national policy and legislative framework clearer, simpler and more proportionate. These recommendations have the potential to remove about 15,000 applications from the system, with a further 16,500 subject to a simpler and faster process. Our recommendations will free up planning officers and elected members to focus on more important applications, it will allow more effective engagement with interest groups and consultees. They should also yield savings, for both applicants and local planning authorities, of almost £300 million each year which should, in turn, release resources for improving the experience of all those involved in the process. We believe that the recent economic difficulties, and the very challenging outlook, have strongly reinforced the need to have a leaner, more effective and faster applications process that is more responsive to the needs of all users. With that in mind, we believe that we have developed an ambitious, but deliverable, package of measures which can produce wide benefits. They will provide for a re-energised and much improved planning applications process, that will help speed up economic recovery, and help to ensure that we get the right development, in the right place and at the right time. We firmly believe our recommendations, if implemented, should be viewed not as to an end to planning reform, but as part of an on-going process of reform. We urge Government to act on them now. Finally, our sincere thanks go to the members of our Sounding Board, our tireless Secretariat, and to the many stakeholders who took part in discussions and events throughout the whole review and across the nine English regions. Their commitment and contribution to our work was substantial and very much appreciated. Joanna Killian David Pretty 4 Planning Applications: A faster and more responsive system – Final Report Executive Summary Our purpose In the 60 years since the post-war government introduced the planning framework as we know it, it has constantly adapted to meet the challenges of a changing world.

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