London boroughs slam DCLG measures to tackle planning underperformance

London Councils, which represents all 33 authorities in the capital, has launched a strong attack on Government plans for assessing planning performance.

Under draft legislation contained in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, applicants would be given the option of applying directly to the Planning Inspectorate in cases where there are clear failures in local authority planning performance.

The Department for Communities and Local Government insisted in its consultation paper that the power to designate a local authority for this purpose would be used “only where there is a track record of very poor performance in either the speed or quality of the decisions made by an authority”.

It also claimed that clear benchmarks would be used to define what this meant in practice.

The option to apply to the Planning Inspectorate will be limited to those seeking permission for major development.

The DCLG said: “Apart from its direct effects, we anticipate that the legislation will stimulate an increased focus on performance across planning authorities generally, and will help to ensure that the planning guarantee is met.”

However, the plans were criticised by London Councils as “an excessive measure to deal with a very small number of planning authorities”. It also warned that the measures were “likely to result in counter-productive outcomes”.

The organisation said a centralised system would be less accountable, undermine local support in planning and ran counter to Government aims to make the planning system more accountable to local residents.

Specific objections made by London Councils included:

• the proposed system “does not make any allowance for volumes in applications”;
• the percentages which would be used to indicate where a local authority was failing in its duties “appear to have been set arbitrarily, with no clear evidence basis”; and
• pre-application discussions would be “more difficult to conduct and result in less satisfactory, and more controversial, planning decisions if taken by the Planning Inspectorate”.

London Councils argued as well that the Government should be focusing on improving access to borrowing if it wanted to deliver more homes, offices and retail outlets.

It has urged ministers to allow local authorities to borrow fully against their housing assets, claiming that this would see 55,000 new homes in the capital “unlocked at the stroke of a pen”.

Cllr Chris Roberts, London Councils’ Executive Member for Infrastructure and Economy, said: “The government is right to focus on quality and speed in the planning system, but this measure will see decision-making taken from local communities and given to unelected bureaucrats. We all want to tackle poor performance, but this needs to be done by looking at specific problems through locally-led cooperation – and not by wasting money on a new bureaucracy."

He added: "If the government is serious about improving planning performance, it should follow through with its own policy of letting councils set fees that cover the cost of providing their planning service – which has been delayed for over two years now.”

The paper for the consultation, which closed last week, can be viewed here.