Councils speed up planning process in (nearly all of) UK
Excellent News. Unless of course you live in London, where we’ve bucked the National trend and slowed down
This article was written by Allister Hayman for Property Week published on 17/09/2015
Councils are approving major planning applications more quickly than at any point over the past 10 years, government figures have shown.
The Department for Communities and Local Government figures showed that 77% of major planning applications in England in 2014/15 were either approved in 13 weeks or to an agreed timetable. This is up on 71% in 2013/14 and just 58% in 2012/13 – it is the highest rate in the past 10 years.
HOWEVER, Andrew Jackson, head of development economics at Boyer, said the improved national performance masked a fall in the rate that major applications were being approved in the capital, where London boroughs showed a 10 percentage point drop in the number of decisions made against agreed time limits.Jackson said this was due to a decline in resources. “The fall comes against a background where the number of major applications hasn’t increased dramatically. In large part the issue is resources within planning departments – there just aren’t enough senior officers to deal with major applications, and with funding cuts putting ever greater pressures on councils to save money the prospects do not look good for speedier decision-making.