Planning system changes will fail, warns HBF

Changes to the planning system announced by the government yesterday and effective immediately, are likely to fail in their objectives, the House Builders Federation (HBF) has warned today (Friday).

'Planning System Must Be Fast But Fair', reduces the time for planning appeals from six months to three months, increases the level of consultation required between planning departments and Regional Development Agencies, and requires planning authorities to provide reasons for granting planning permissions.

However, although the HBF welcomes the stated objective of a 'faster and fairer system', it believes the new requirements could have the opposite effect.

HBF spokesman Pierre Williams, said: "Local planning authorities have long blamed their inefficiency on being under-funded under-staffed and overworked. But these changes simply increase their workload.

"Reducing the time for appeals may sound like a drive to increase speed. But with housing schemes becoming evermore complicated as a result of the drive for sustainable, mixed-use and high-density development, much work looks set to be wasted for failing to fit into the new reduced timeframe.

"This will result in new applications having to start from scratch, resulting in plenty of unnecessary duplication and even more delay before a start can be made," he said.

"Planning authorities are processing just 16% of major applications within the statutory eight week limit whilst the Government target is 60%. This demonstrates the inability of the system to cope."