By Richard Johnstone | 4 April 2014
MPs have today launched an inquiry into the effectiveness of the government’s planning reforms amid concerns that some councils are engaging in poor practice to meet Whitehall targets.
The local government select committee’s decision to undertake a review follows an examination of the pinch points in the new planning system, conducted by the Centre for Housing and Planning Research at Cambridge University.
This found that planning performance targets – which call on local authorities to make decisions on minor applications within eight weeks and major developments in 13 – were masking both good and bad performance.
The actual time taken to reach a planning consent is not reflected in the target statistics as some authorities spend a lot of time on applications before the formal process begins, the report found. In addition, some local planning authorities engage in poor practice in order to meet the targets, such as refusing some initial applications from developers and requesting resubmissions so they can meet the target times.
Committee chair Clive Betts said that although the new National Planning Policy Framework had been broadly welcomed, a focus on good practice in local planning authorities was now required. The inquiry would look at the first two years of the NPPF in three areas – planning for housing, town centres, and energy infrastructure.
‘The research suggests that government planning performance targets may be driving perverse behaviour,’ he said.
‘This is especially worrying as the research also finds that a focus on good practice in local planning authorities is required if the NPPF is to be fully effective.
‘A number of local authorities are exemplary according to the performance data but described as ‘horrendous’ by those with first-hand experience of working with them.’
Under this regime, efficient authorities that focus on customer service and enabling good development could be placed in special measures because they miss their targets, while others could be lauded for gaming the system.
‘The evidence from the research suggests that government proposals to increase the threshold for designating authorities as underperforming may only make matters worse,’ Betts added.
‘I am today sending a copy of our research to planning minister Nick Boles.’
Report author Gemma Burgess said the centre had intended to identify pinch points in the planning process that were constraining new house building.
‘However, an unexpected finding was that the planning performance targets can create perverse incentives, such as some local authorities refusing an application simply to make a decision within the statutory period,’ she added. ‘This means that although the data might show that a local authority meets the targets, in reality time is either spent in pre-application discussions or on post-determination processes, or both, and this time is not reflected in the planning performance data.’
