Boles revealed the figures in a written statement to a House of Commons debate. The statement was in response to shadow planning minister Roberta Blackman-Woods who had asked Boles to confirm the Government's estimate of extra resources required by PINS next year.
The 134 full-time equivalent staff to be provided to handle national infrastructure work is more than a 50% increase on the previous year's figure of 87.6. Boles' statement said that PINS would also be provided with 4.5 full-time equivalent staff to consider community infrastructure levy (CIL) draft charging schedules, and with 29.6 full-time equivalent staff to examine local plans from councils. However, these numbers were only slightly increased from the previous year.
The figures follow the Government's impact assessment of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, which was published earlier this week. The assessment said estimates had shown that up to 180 major planning applications per year could be eligible to be submitted to PINS under the Bill's proposals to allow major planning applications to be submitted to PINS where the local planning authority has a track record of poor performance in the speed or quality of its decisions.
"It is the intention to resource the Planning Inspectorate adequately to deal with the additional work and this will include specialist viability advice where it is required," the impact assessment said.
