By Richard Johnstone | 6 May 2013
The government should simplify planning regulations further to boost private sector housebuilding and construction, according to the Centre for Policy Studies.
In a report published today, the CPS said 118 current statutes should be consolidated into a single planning Act.
The think-tank urged ministers to introduce 'sunset clauses' on any new regulations affecting the construction industry to allow their impact to be reviewed.
Its research found that, in the first half of 2011, 278 new planning regulations were introduced, compared with just 150 in the first six months of the last Labour government in 1997.
In Simplified Planning, CPS research fellow Keith Boyfield and law student Inna Ali said this red tape was holding back new developments, such as the renewed interest in garden cities.
The ‘notoriously complex’ planning rules should be revised specifically to reduce the unacceptable delays inherent in today’s system, they said.
Recommended reforms included a single consolidated Act of Parliament, covering laws that dated back to 1861.
The report also called for changes to the way individuals and businesses were compensated by the planning process. Local authority planning officials should be responsible for determining who deserved compensation from a particular development, in a process akin to environmental impact assessments. Individuals could then negotiate compensation agreements with developers.
Ministers should also encourage groups of local councils to come together to identify potential sites for new garden cities.
CPS director Tim Knox said: ‘The coalition is right to have identified the complexity of the current planning system as a major obstacle to growth. It should learn from the historic success of Milton Keynes and the plans for a new garden city at Old Hatfield to see how implementing real reform can free up the planning process to the great benefit of both would-be homeowners and the wider economy.’
In March last year, the government published a National Planning Policy Framework that was intended to simplify existing planning rules.
