Penfold Review

Following the recommendations from the Killian Pretty Review in 2008, The Penfold Review was set up to gather evidence to assess the role that non-planning consents play in investment decisions, and to propose ways to address any identified barriers to investment.

It explored the end-to-end development journey to identify any elements of the process that cause avoidable delays or impose unnecessary burdens or costs and identify options to overcome these.

The Review also identified ways to improve co-ordination between agencies granting consents in order to streamline the process of meeting relevant requirements. In doing so, it sought to retain an appropriate balance between the outcomes regulatory regimes are designed to support and the need for fast and efficient decision-making about development proposals.

The Review recommended:

• Simplifying the non-planning consents landscape by removing some individual consents and rationalising other groups of related consents;
• Giving developers easy access to clear, accurate and up-to-date information;
• Delivering greater certainty for developers and removing duplication by improving the way planning and non-planning consents operate together;
• Improving the co-ordination and governance around decisions involving multiple decision makers;
• Strengthening the service culture of decision-making bodies by, for example, setting timetables for the determination of non-planning consents; and
• Creating a clear system for oversight of the planning and non-planning landscape.

Read the RTPI's submission to the Review.

The final report was published in July 2010 with recommendations for Government to consider. The Government response to the Penfold Review welcomed the review as an important contribution to improving both the delivery of consenting regimes and the experience of developers who must obtain development consents in November 2010.

Next steps

Implementing the Penfold Review was published on the same day as the Autumn Statement in November 2011. As part of the Government's aim to support growth and competiveness of the business environment a programme to ensure consent regimes operate in the most flexible and simplified way possible, with the aim to:

• Scrap unnecessary development consents and simplify others;
• Reform the remits and working practices of the public bodies granting or advising on development consents;
• Set a clear timescale for deciding development consent applications; and
• Make it easier to apply for development consents.