Bureaucratic burden lifted to speed up building in growth agenda

Further reforms to overhaul the planning system have been set out today [Monday 10 March] putting growth at the heart of the statutory consultee system and helping deliver the government’s Plan for Change milestone of delivering 1.5 million new homes.

Under new plans organisations such as Sport England, Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust will no longer be required to input on planning decisions. The scope of other statutory consultees will be narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environmental protection, speeding up the building process and preventing delays to homes being built.

“Statutory consultees” are official stakeholders legally required to provide advice on planning decisions to ensure developments can consider essential environmental, transport, heritage and safety elements. They play an important role in the planning system, but councils and developers report that the system is not working effectively.

The changes are part of the government’s ongoing stream of work to break down barriers to growth and get Britain building. They come ahead of the government’s flagship Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which will be introduced this week and will support the government’s Plan for Change commitment to build 1.5 million homes.

Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said:

“We’ve put growth at the heart of our plans as a government, with our Plan for Change milestone to secure 1.5 million homes and unleash Britain’s potential to build.

“We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays – putting a hold on people’s lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need.

“New developments must still meet our high expectations to create the homes, facilities and infrastructure that communities need.”

The list of statutory consultees has also grown haphazardly over time and now includes over 25 organisations. Problems expressed include statutory consultees:

• failing to engage proactively;
• taking too long to provide their advice;
• re-opening issues that have already been dealt with in local plans;
• submitting automatic holding objections which are then withdrawn at a late stage; and
• submitting advice that seeks gold-plated outcomes, going beyond what is necessary to make development acceptable in planning terms.

Problems with the operation of the system cause uncertainty, extensive delays, and increased costs. This is due to the time taken to provide advice and the complexities sometimes causing the provision of over extensive or unnecessary advice.

In the past three years over 300 applications were forced to be escalated for consideration by the Secretary of State because of disagreements from consultees.  

In broader examples given to ministers, a government department reported a two-year delay to a simple planning application on the government estate because of inability to agree a position with a statutory consultee.

In Bradford, a development to create 140 new homes next to a cricket club was significantly delayed because the application was thought to have not adequately considered the speed of cricket balls.

While noting the broader role that statutory consultees play within the planning system in facilitating high quality development, the government is reforming the system to ensure it operates in a sensible, systematic way, and does not create unnecessary blockers.

The government recognises the importance of these organisations and their value to local communities. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will continue to apply and these organisations will continue to engage with the planning system through development of local and strategic plans, and through the publication of guidance and advice.

Proposed changes will put support for growth at the heart of the statutory consultee process by;

• Consulting on reducing the number of organisations, including the impact of removing Sport England, the Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust.
• Reviewing the scope of all statutory consultees, to reduce the type and number of applications on which they must be consulted – and making much better use of standing guidance in place of case-by-case responses.
• Clarifying that local authorities should only be consulting statutory consultees where necessary to do so, and decisions should not be delayed beyond the 21 day statutory deadline unless a decision cannot otherwise be reached or advice may enable an approval rather than a refusal. 
• Instituting a new performance framework, in which the Chief Executives of key statutory consultees report on their performance directly to Treasury and MHCLG Ministers.

This follows the decision by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor earlier this year pausing the formation of new statutory consultees and a commitment to reviewing the existing arrangements.  

The NPPF is clear that existing open spaces, sports, recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, should not be built on unless an assessment has shown the space to be surplus to requirements or it will be replaced by equivalent or better provision.  These strong policy protections will remain firmly in place, with the government expecting them to be taken into account in planning decisions.

The government will consult this Spring on the impacts of removing a limited number of statutory consultees and narrowing the scope of others so they can focus on the most important applications.  

This comes ahead of the introduction of the government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill this week, which will bring forward significant measures introduced to speed up planning decisions to boost housebuilding and remove unnecessary blockers and challenges to the delivery of vital developments like roads, railway lines and windfarms.