The Growth and Infrastructure Act, which gained Royal Assent in April, introduced an option for developers to make planning applications directly to the PINS where the local planning authority for the area has been designated for that purpose.
The league tables published yesterday show data on the performance of local planning authorities against the Government criteria for assessing under-performance.
Under the criteria, which were issued last month, local planning authorities which determine 30% or fewer of the major planning applications that come before them within the statutory period or have more than 20% of their decisions overturned at appeal can be designated as underperforming. This will initially be assessed over the period from July 2011 to June 2013.
The interim tables, covering the seven quarters between July 2011 and March 2013, revealed that ten councils are currently failing to meet the criteria. These include Halton; Barnet; North East Derbyshire; Tandridge; Cherwell; Lambeth; Fylde; Daventry; Horsham and Blaby.
A further four councils, Adur; Hammersmith and Fulham; Lewisham and Worthing, face automatic designation because they have data missing for all seven quarters.
The DCLG said in a statement that the interim tables should not be taken as an indication that any particular authorities will be designated once information for the assessment period as a whole becomes available in September and October this year.
“While it is undeniable that something needs to be done to make poorly-performing authorities up their game, the loss of planning powers does not appear to offer the solution," said Mike Pocock, planning expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. "The ability for a developer to bypass local decision-making will be seen by many to be yet another blow against localism."
“However, developers will not necessarily view applying directly to the Secretary of State as an attractive option. Many will be reluctant to have their applications determined in this way, as not only do they perceive their chances of success to be lower, but there will also be no option of a further appeal if refused," Pocock said.
“Given these constraints, the proposals do not offer a solution for either developers or the authorities, while at the same time nothing is done to address the underlying problem that has led to authorities performing poorly in the first place,” he added.
