Healey announces new measures to 'streamline' planning system

Housing and Planning Minister John Healey today announced a package of measures to streamline the planning system, help businesses deliver projects quickly and drive down costs during recovery.

Under proposed guidance, councils and developers will work together before applications are submitted, ensuring developments for businesses, offices, shops, schools and other institutions are assessed quickly. The proposals will also reduce the number of conditions applied to planning permissions, saving time and money.

The changes, due to come into force in 2010, will deliver up to £11m of savings for businesses and up to £25m for councils every year. This package builds on proposals announced earlier this year, bringing potential combined savings of up to £120m a year for businesses.

Mr Healey also confirmed today that the rules for local authorities advertising planning applications in local newspapers will not change.
New guidelines will say that as well as advertising in papers, local authorities will be required to publish information about planning applications on their website, to ensure local residents are fully informed about planning issues in their area.

Consultations published today outline how councils should support developers who propose appropriate development throughout the planning process, from pre-application right through to when new buildings are completed.

Councils will work with developers to look at future projects, offering expert advice and highlighting potential problems with planning applications that can be ironed out before they are submitted.

John Healey said: "An efficient and cost effective planning system is crucial for economic recovery and growth. Changing the way local authorities, businesses and agencies work together will ensure that the homes this country needs are not delayed in the planning system and the administrative burden on councils is reduced.

"Businesses also need certainty that their developments will not be delayed by red tape after planning permission has been given.

"By cooperating from the drawing board to the last brick being laid, proposals will get through the planning system faster and barriers that stall projects will be removed."

Under the new rules, councils will be more involved in how developments are designed and built, and will be able to focus support into projects that will benefit local people the most. Developers will have greater clarity about the decision-making process and certainty about when then will be able to start work on their projects. This approach has already been used successfully across the country.

Examples include:

• Allerdale District Council - Council worked with the developer to ensure 119 new homes were built on the site of a redundant steel works in Workington in Cumbria, helping the regeneration of a deprived part of the town
• Islington Borough Council - identified an area in Islington as an area that could be used to build new homes, and worked with the developer and local community to help deliver family-sized affordable homes, and replacement premises for a GP surgery
• Redcar and Cleveland Council - councillors and local people worked with the developer to modify plans to provide 68 homes, 15 per cent of which would be affordable, in Brotton, North Yorkshire, so that they suited the needs of the local community.
• Other proposals aim to reduce the number of conditions councils impose on planning permissions and give faster approval of conditions when they are met, helping businesses deliver their projects faster.

The way organisations such as the Environment Agency and English Heritage are in involved in the planning process will also be changed. New rules will improve the performance of agencies and other key bodies, ensuring they get involved in the process earlier and that information about preventing flooding and protecting old buildings is provided quickly.

The package builds on reforms recommended by the Killian Pretty Review into the planning system last year. In July, the Government consulted on recommendations to reduce the amount of information that applicants submit with their planning applications. These new proposals go even further to aid business recovery and ensure that quality control and support is being offered at all stages of the planning approval process, saving time and money.

Mr Healey confirmed today that following the first batch of Killian Pretty consultations in Summer 2009, the following progress that has been made on overhauling the planning system to aid recovery in the downturn.

This includes:

• Saving money for business by reducing amount of information that applicants submit with their planning applications
• Cutting red tape and expense for businesses, shops and schools, allowing them to make minor alterations and extensions to planning permissions, and extending the time they have to implement them.