Knowledge

Killian-Pretty Review

The Killian Pretty review was announced in March 2008. The review examined the planning application process, from pre-application through to the discharge of conditions and commencement of construction. It was led by Joanna Killian (Chief Executive of Essex County Council) and David Pretty (former Group Chief Executive of Barratt Developments plc).

The review aimed to:

Examine what can disrupt the progress of an application
Make recommendations to improve the process, for example by:
Reducing requirements for the duplication of paperwork in the application process;
Reducing delays occurring after permission has been granted due to the discharge of conditions or the finalisation of legal agreements;
Enabling councils to make better use of technology to notify people about planning applications, in addition to more traditional ways.
The review made a formal call for solutions.

RTPI response to the review

We supported the basis for the review as an essential means of delivering detail in the Government's response to recommendations in the Barker 2 report around development management. We strongly supported the identification and smoothing away of avoidable obstacles in the development management process.

The RTPI agreed with the Governments desire to reduce paperwork and said we would welcome a more proportional approach to planning decision making and administration, which removes further forms of minor development from the planning process.

The RTPI made it clear that whilst it is important that the planning system should be judged by the quality of its outcomes, not just the speed with which those outcomes are delivered. The products of planning decisions, places and spaces and the buildings and landscapes that form them typically last for generations.

Full RTPI response to the Killian Pretty Review

Killian Pretty final report

The final report from the Killian Pretty Review was published in November 2008, and had responded positively to advice from the RTPI and other planning and development stakeholders.

The RTPI broadly supported the seventeen recommendations made and particularly welcomed the recommendations calling for:

Reappraisal of time-based government targets for planning that fail to reward outcome quality or community satisfaction;
The appropriate training of elected councillors involved in planning;
The modernisation of community consultation, ensuring that people are involved in ways that are both efficient and relevant to them; and
Recognition that new burdens on the planning system must be matched by new revenue streams or new government funding.

The Killian Pretty Review Team were careful to emphasise that savings emerging from fair proposals should be reinvested in the planning system. The RTPI strongly endorsed this proposal and called upon it to be taken forward in the implementation plan.

Government response to the Killian Pretty Review

In March 2009 the Government published its response to the Killian Pretty Report, proposing an "ambitious, but deliverable, programme of measures to create a planning application process which is more proportionate, that operates more efficiently and effectively and is more easily understood by all involved".

The Government released it's Second Progress Report in December 2009 and outlined a number of new consultations taking forward the recommendations in the Killian Pretty Report.