Councils hit out at Government proposals to "performance manage" local planning authorities with accelerated system

Government plans to accelerate the planning system by reforming extensions of time agreements, appeals, and by introducing a sped-up planning route for major commercial applications have been strongly opposed by the Local Government Association (LGA).

The LGA set out its concerns in a consultation response to a Government consultation on proposals to introduce a new Accelerated Planning Service for major commercial applications with a decision time in 10 weeks and fee refunds if this is not met.

The consultation, which closed on 1 May, also detailed proposed changes to extensions of time agreements, including ending their use for householder applications and only allowing one extension of time for other developments. 

This would be complemented by a proposed new performance measure for local planning authority speed of decision-making against statutory time limits, the consultation document added. 

Beyond this, the consultation proposed expanding the current simplified written representations appeals process for householder and minor commercial appeals to more appeals and implementing section 73B for applications to vary planning permissions and the treatment of overlapping permissions.

Responding to the plans, the LGA said: "Fundamentally, the Government must ask themselves what they value more from the planning system in order to deliver growth and sustainable places; the speed of an applications decision, or, the quality of the outcome/development for communities."

The LGA said that councils had raised concerns about the 10 week period being unmanageable, in particular if the initial application is incomplete.

The response added: "If it is the Government's view that a faster timeline can be met by simply uprating the associated fees which would in theory permit councils to recover full costs of assessing applications, then this should be rolled out across all planning application types with the accelerated planning service abandoned.

"The reality is that it is not as simple as uprating fees. Local authority planning departments are facing incredibly challenging resourcing, capacity and skills shortages – with nearly 60% of councils experiencing difficulties recruiting planners."

The response also pointed to figures suggesting over one-third of councils face challenges in retention of planning staff or preventing the 'brain drain' to the private sector.

The LGA also voiced opposition to the proposals to remove the ability to use extension of time agreements for householder applications.

It said councils have reported that applicants "generally would rather wait a few more weeks for application determination than be refused and required to re-submit their proposal, particularly now 'free go's' have been omitted".

The response added: "Many local authorities are already taking steps to reduce the use of extension of time agreements for these types of applications, but their prohibition may result in unintended consequences whereby further delays to decision making are incurred through the inability to use a tried and tested, and much relied upon, tool."

In order to justify the change, the LGA called on the Government to publish the evidence they rely upon for the claim that "extension of time agreements are being used for smaller and less complex householder applications, without good reason, to compensate for delays in decision-making and poor performance".

On this point, the response said: "There is no way of differentiating between a 'good' use of extension of time agreements or a 'bad' one, and the narrative that local authorities are delaying the planning process purposefully is harmful."

Turning to the performance measure proposals, the LGA said it does not agree with the new approach and hit out against the Government's claim that the use of extension of time agreements masks poor performance.

It went on to urge the Government to undertake a holistic review of statutory timescales for application determinations.

Adam Carey