Local planning authorities say they don’t have the resources to give planning permission on time
Property firms have welcomed the government’s new housing and planning bill, as a survey out today exposes the inefficiencies of the current planning system.
Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday that local authorities will have to produce local plans for new homes in their area within the next two years – or the national government will step in.
British Property Foundation (BPF) chief executive Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, praised the announcement, saying ministers are “being fairly punchy in the reforms it wants to make to the planning system to deliver new homes”.
Leech’s comments come as a new survey out today from the BPF and the property consultancy GL Hearn shows that more than half of local planning authorities say they lack the resources they need to adequately deal with planning applications.
According to the survey, it now takes, on average, 32 weeks to have planning applications approved in London and other cities, more than double the government target of 13 weeks.