Council planning departments are set to miss out on an extra £70
million by the end of the financial year, ‘hampering’ their
ability to process applications, if the Government does not
urgently bring forward measures to increase planning fees, the
LGA warns today.
Following a debate in Parliament yesterday on the regulations
around planning fees, councils are warning that an immediate
increase is needed to ensure applications are processed as
efficiently and effectively as possible. The move will be debated
next week in the House of Commons.
In the Budget, the Chancellor said he would introduce measures to
speed up development, yet pledged no new money to help with the
resourcing of planning departments – despite this being the key
ask of councils to help speed up planning processes.
The LGA has consistently called for the Government to cover the
cost of processing applications for planning departments through
allowing councils to set fees locally.
From July, councils were expecting to be able to raise fees by 20
per cent. On top of this, they still await the results of a
government consultation to raise them again by a further 20 per
cent. It is now absolutely crucial that this month’s Local
Government Finance Settlement includes the ability for them to
make this first rise immediately.
In the Budget, the Chancellor also announced a major review into
the gap between planning permissions being granted to developers
and homes actually being built. The LGA has consistently called
for councils to be given the powers they need to make sure that
sites granted planning permission actually become homes for our
communities to live in, but more resources are required to make
the Chancellor’s planning ambitions a reality.
Overall, councils face a £5.8 billion shortfall in funding by
2020, and previous LGA analysis showed that the bill for local
taxpayers to cover the cost of planning applications is around
£200 million a year and will, in total, cost £1 billion by 2022.
Cllr Martin Tett, the LGA’s Housing spokesman, said:
“Council planning departments are doing an incredible job with
extremely limited resources, approving nine out of 10
applications, with the majority processed quickly.
“The simple fact is that if the Government is serious about
speeding up the delivery of new homes, they must provide more
resources for our planning departments.
“The Government has promised to increase planning fees, as a
first step to helping speed up development, and we urge them to
bring forward this increase as soon as possible - the upcoming
Local Government Finance Settlement would be an ideal
opportunity.
“Our planners both protect local environments and ensure
appropriate and affordable homes are delivered for our
communities. That’s why ultimately, council planners should be
able to set fees that reflect the needs of their local area.
“As a minimum first step, however, the Government needs to
deliver those fee increases that they have already committed to.
By April next year, if the fees are not forthcoming, planners
will have missed out on £70 million, which is money that would
help us approve applications, safeguard our environments, and
deliver homes and communities to be proud of.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- 1. Read the LGA’s briefing for the
Parliamentary debate today here
- 2. LGA analysis of the DCLG figures
reveal that income for 2016/7 was £451,323 million. 20 per cent
of this would be £90.3 million, and nine months’ worth (dating
from when the increase was supposed to be introduced in July to
the end of the financial year) takes that figure to £67.7
million.
- 3. The Lords’ Debate on the Town and
Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications,
Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017
happened yesterday, Wednesday
6th December. The draft regulations can be
found here.
- 4. The Government first promised to
introduce fees by 20 per cent from July 2017 in
the Housing White
Paper and consulted on criteria to allow councils to
charge an additional 20 per cent in a consultation which
closed on 9th November.
