Charities and public bodies to be cut from planning system to speed up decisions

Problems expressed include statutory consultees failing to engage proactively, taking too long to provide advice, reopening issues that have already been dealt with in local plans, and submitting automatic holding objections which are then withdrawn at a late stage.

Other issues included submitting advice that seeks “gold-plated outcomes” and going beyond what is necessary to make development acceptable in planning terms.

The current system can cause uncertainty, extensive delays and increased costs, the government said. This is due to the time taken to provide advice and the complexities sometimes causing the provision of “over extensive or unnecessary” advice.

In the past three years, more than 300 applications were forced to be escalated for consideration by the secretary of state because of disagreements from consultees. A government department reported a two-year delay to a simple planning application on the government estate because of inability to agree a position with a statutory consultee.

Meanwhile in Bradford, a development to create 140 new homes next to a cricket club was significantly delayed because the application was thought to have “not adequately considered the speed of cricket balls”.

The review of statutory consultees comes as the government is expected to publish its flagship Planning and Infrastructure Bill later this week, which will introduce measures to boost housebuilding and remove challenges to the delivery of roads, railway lines and wind farms.

Reports in The Times suggested that the bill would ban committees of councillors from interfering in all but the biggest planning applications. Details are still being finalised, but the threshold below which councillors cannot step in is expected to be set somewhere between 10 and 100 houses.

Speaking to the Financial Times on 9 March, housing minister Matthew Pennycook suggested that the new planning bill would halve the time it takes to get approval for major infrastructure projects from the current average of four years to two years.

Measures included in the legislation include cutting the number of judicial reviews into a project from three to two. Instead of dealing with individual councils and having to offset harm on a site-by-site basis, developers will pay into a nature restoration fund before pressing on with their project. The bill would also force local councils to work together and agree to build homes through “spatial development strategies”.

Announcing the reforms to statutory consultees on 10 March, MHCLG clarified that local authorities should only be consulting statutory consultees where necessary to do so, and decisions should not be delayed beyond the 21-day statutory deadline unless a decision cannot otherwise be reached or advice may enable an approval rather than a refusal.

The scope of other statutory consultees will be narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environmental protection, to speed up the building process.

The government also proposed introducing a new performance framework, in which the chief executives of key statutory consultees report on their performance directly to Treasury and MHCLG ministers.

Earlier this year, the deputy prime minister and the chancellor paused the formation of new statutory consultees and committed to reviewing the existing arrangements.  

The National Planning Policy Framework stated that existing open spaces, sports, recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, should not be built on unless an assessment has shown the space to be surplus to requirements or it will be replaced by equivalent or better provision. These protections will remain in place, the government said.

Deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner said: “We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays – putting a hold on people’s lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need.

“New developments must still meet our high expectations to create the homes, facilities and infrastructure that communities need.”

The Local Government Association has written to ministers to express reservations over the reported reforms in the planning bill. It pointed out that it is already “larger or more controversial schemes” that councillors make decisions on.

“This democratic role of councillors in decision-making is the backbone of the English planning system and our reservations about a national scheme of delegation centre on this role potentially being eroded,” it warned.

“Many councillors stand for election on the basis of the role they could play in positively supporting the growth or protection of the environment and community in which they stand. Potentially removing the ability for councillors to discuss, debate or vote on key developments in their localities could erode public trust in the planning system and local government itself.”