Out-Law News 1 min. read

Government figures reveal councils in danger of losing planning powers


The UK government has released figures on the performance of local planning authorities in England, revealing that eight councils dealing with district planning are at risk of losing planning powers for underperformance.

The Growth and Infrastructure Act gave the communities secretary the option to designate any local authority that is not "adequately performing its function of determining planning applications" as underperforming, allowing planning applications to be submitted directly to the Planning Inspectorate.

Councils are rated on the speed of their decision-making over the previous two years, which is measured as a percentage of major planning applications decided within 13 weeks, or any other individually agreed timescale. They are also rated on the quality of their decision-making, by reference to the percentage of major planning applications subject to a successful appeal.

Figures released last week showed that nine authorities responsible for district planning decided 50% or fewer of major applications quickly enough over the two years to the end of June 2015. Each of these authorities failed to exceed a revised threshold of 50% of decisions made on time introduced in July, although eight of the nine authorities would have met the previous threshold of 40% of decisions made on time.

The worst-performing district authority in terms of speed was Bromsgrove District Council, which was designated as underperforming last winter. The district councils for Forest Heath, Ipswich, Blackburn with Darwen, Merton, Gloucester, the City of London, Christchurch and Cheltenham also failed to meet the government's new threshold.

According to an explanatory note released with the performance figures, underperforming authorities may be designated in November or December.

Planning expert Emma Cottam of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "Those authorities that are close to falling short of the 50% threshold will need to balance delivering decisions quickly, alongside the obligation to ensure that those decisions are of quality. Local planning authorities play a vital role in enabling the delivery of much needed infrastructure. With housing high on the political agenda, it will be interesting to see how developers respond to these potential special measures designations as we move in to the New Year."

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