Ministry to consult on removing certain bodies as statutory consultees, narrowing the focus of other organisations
A number of organisations including Sport England, the Theatres Trust and the Gardens Trust will no longer be required to input on planning decisions, while the scope of other statutory consultees will be narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environmental protection, under plans put forward by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The MHCLG also said a new performance framework for statutory consultees with greater ministerial oversight would be established.
The Ministry said statutory consultees play an important role in the planning system, but claimed that councils and developers had reported that the system was not working effectively.
It also suggested that the list of statutory consultees had grown "haphazardly" over time.
Problems expressed include statutory consultees:
- “failing to engage proactively;
- taking too long to provide their advice;
- re-opening issues that have already been dealt with in local plans;
- submitting automatic holding objections which are then withdrawn at a late stage; and
- submitting advice that seeks gold-plated outcomes, going beyond what is necessary to make development acceptable in planning terms.”
The MHCLG claimed that in the past three years more than 300 applications were forced to be escalated for consideration by the Secretary of State because of disagreements from consultees.
The Ministry stressed that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) would continue to apply and these organisations would continue to engage with the planning system through development of local and strategic plans, and through the publication of guidance and advice.
The proposed changes include:
- consulting on reducing the number of organisations, including the impact of removing Sport England, the Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust
- reviewing the scope of all statutory consultees, to reduce the type and number of applications on which they must be consulted – and making much better use of standing guidance in place of case-by-case responses
- clarifying that local authorities should only be consulting statutory consultees where necessary to do so, and decisions should not be delayed beyond the 21 day statutory deadline unless a decision cannot otherwise be reached or advice may enable an approval rather than a refusal
- instituting a new performance framework, in which the Chief Executives of key statutory consultees report on their performance directly to Treasury and MHCLG Ministers.
The MHCLG said: “The NPPF is clear that existing open spaces, sports, recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, should not be built on unless an assessment has shown the space to be surplus to requirements or it will be replaced by equivalent or better provision. These strong policy protections will remain firmly in place, with the government expecting them to be taken into account in planning decisions.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: “We’ve put growth at the heart of our plans as a government, with our Plan for Change milestone to secure 1.5 million homes and unleash Britain’s potential to build.
“We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays – putting a hold on people’s lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need.
“New developments must still meet our high expectations to create the homes, facilities and infrastructure that communities need.”
The consultation will take place this spring, according to the Ministry.
The Government will later this week introduce its Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which it promised would bring forward “significant measures introduced to speed up planning decisions to boost housebuilding and remove unnecessary blockers and challenges to the delivery of vital developments like roads, railway lines and windfarms”.
