Local taxpayers will be forced to spend £1 billion covering the
cost of planning applications by 2022,the Local Government
Association warns today.
Planning fees are set nationally, which means councils are
prevented from recovering the full cost of processing the 486,500
planning applications they receive on average each year.
Since 2012 - the last time the national fees were increased -
communities have footed the bill for as much as a third of all
planning applications. This represents desperately-needed
resources being diverted away from other vital local services.
Analysis by the LGA reveals the bill for local taxpayers to cover
the cost of planning applications is growing at a rate of around
£200 million a year and will reach £1 billion by 2022. This is
the equivalent of:
-
· Repairing
4.35 million potholes - potholes cost £46 to
repair, on average.
-
· Providing
grant funding to help councils and housing associations provide
8,507 new affordable homes. The Homes and
Communities Agency, on the last round of funding allocation
through the Affordable Homes Programme, issued an average grant
per home of £23,510.
-
· Creating
more than 828 miles of public pavements, almost 4 times the
length of the M6– footways are estimated to cost around
£150 per meter.
The LGA is warning this ongoing fees shortfall is hampering
planning departments’ ability to stimulate housing growth in
communities.
With councils facing an overall £5.8 billion funding gap by
2020, the LGA is calling on government to urgently bring
forward its Housing White Paper commitment, to allow councils to
increase planning fees, and also commit to testing a fair and
transparent scheme of local fee setting, to allow councils to
recover actual costs.
Cllr Martin Tett, LGA Housing spokesman, said:
“It is wrong for communities to keep being forced to spend
hundreds of millions each year to cover the cost of all planning
applications.
“Councils are working flat-out to approve almost nine in ten
planning applications, with the majority processed quickly.
“But the shortfall in the amount of fees councils can charge
and the cost of processing applications is heaping further
pressure on the stretched planning departments which are
so crucial to building the homes and roads that local
communities need.
“Councils need to be able to recover the actual cost of
applications and end such a needless waste of taxpayers' money.
“Locally-set fees would also allow councils to prevent increased
costs being passed on to residents, while developers could
contribute more to maintain high-quality planning decisions, and
improve the ability of councils to speed up the planning
process.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- 1. 1. £200 million shortfall figures
come from the Local Government Expenditure Statistics, which
are available here.
- 2. Figures on planning applications
come from DCLG Planning statistics, which are
available here
3. According to council estimates, 1
metre of public pavement costs around £150. £200 million’s worth
of this, is 828 miles of public pavement. Planned pothole repairs
cost £46.
4. The Homes and Communities
Agency allocated just over £886
million in funding to deliver 37,685 affordable homes in
their latest funding allocation. Per home, this works out at
£23,510.
5. The LGA’s ‘Growing
Places’ report sets out how councils can - with fairer
funding and freedom from central government - build local public
services for the future.
