Changes to make the planning system "faster and fairer" may have the opposite effect A Faster, Fairer Planning System? Changes to the planning system announced by the Government yesterday and effective immediately, are likely to fail in their objectives, the House Builders Federation has warned. Entitled "Planning System Must Be Fast But Fair", the announcement 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. The House Builders Federation, whilst welcoming the stated objective of a 'faster and fairer system', believes the new requirements could have the opposite effect. Federation spokesman Pierre Williams, said: "The overall stated intention of this Government is to tackle Britain's chronic shortage of housing which has largely been brought about by the failures of the planning system: in short, to achieve delivery. "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. "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. How increasing the burden on an over-loaded system can help is a mystery. "Targets are not aspirational - they are meant to be achieved."
