Background ground to the myth:

'The current debate on planning has talked of “the town hall officials who take for ever with those planning decisions" and “a slow and prescriptive planning regime”. Planning Minister Greg Clark commits to “speeding up applications that get stuck in the system.”

Evidence base:

• Councils as a whole meet or exceed the 8 or 13 week targets set for them by the government, despite reductions in resources. DCLG, Planning Application Statistics
• Since 2009, the Planning Inspectorate has slashed the average time taken to determine householder appeals from 19 to 8 weeks. PINS, 2010/11: Table 1.1
• Only 0.7% of planning applications take longer than 12 months to reach a decision. DCLG, July 2011
• What appear to be delays in planning are not always down to the planning authority or even the planning system. The development industry often conflates planning with other consent regimes, such as licensing or environmental permits.

Our view:

The overall development process in England is among the quickest in western Europe. However, it is recognised that the part of this related to processing planning applications is relatively slow: this is because of the nature of the UK property law – faster European and American “zoning” systems are less flexible and remove community influence from the process.

Planning Myths Campaign,  Localism Bill: RTPI Activity
 

Author:

sarah lewis

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

06-Sep-11

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