Review of planning application regime launched

The Government has launched a review of the planning application regime aiming to remove bottlenecks and create a more efficient system.
Under scrutiny will be issues such as:

• unnecessary duplication of paperwork
• faster resolution of pre-build conditions and agreement on construction schedules
• greater use of technology to notify people about planning applications
• earlier involvement of statutory consultees such as the Highway Agency, Environment Agency and Natural England.

The review will be carried out by Joanna Killian, the chief executive of Essex County Council and David Pretty, former group chief executive of Barratt Developments.

Ministers have stressed that the review will make recommendations for improving the process but should not shift the balance of decision making, weaken important safeguards or reduce public consultation.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears stressed: "We need to make sure that making the system more efficient doesn't mean squeezing the ability of people to have a say. These ideas don't have to be, and shouldn't be, in conflict – you can make a system more efficient and engaging at the same time."

The announcement of the review came in a keynote speech by Blears at an event organised by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

The Royal Town Planning Institute voiced concern that the initiative might emphasise speed rather than quality of decision.

RTPI policy director Rynd Smith said: "It is important that decisions are made promptly but the planning system should be judged by the quality of its outcomes not just the speed with which those outcomes are delivered."

In her speech the secretary of state also called for more public involvement in development plans, particularly at the sub-regional level, and less use of jargon by planners. She warned that "space shaping, plan making and spatial dimension" were phrases which risked sending people to sleep.

Blears also used her speech to highlight the fact that from April a single standard planning application form will be going national via the Planning Portal.

Read the Communities and Local Government news release

Roger Milne

27 March 2008