WIREDGOV

Local communities have been forced to spend £450 million covering the cost of planning applications in the past three years, new analysis revealed yesterday.

Nationally-set planning fees prevent councils from being able to recover the full cost of processing the 467,000 planning applications submitted on average each year.

The Local Government Association estimates this has left local taxpayers covering the third of the cost of all planning applications since 2012, when new legislation covering fees came into force.

The LGA, which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, is urging government to free them from having to divert limited resources away from vital services by allowing councils to set their own planning fees as part of the Spending Review.

The call follows a British Property Federation survey which found two thirds of its private sector respondents would be willing to pay increased fees to help under-resourced planning departments keep providing an effective service.

The LGA and BPF are calling for the Government to conduct a review of planning fees as part of the Spending Review.

Analysis by the LGA ahead of the Spending Review reveals covering the cost of planning applications is growing at a rate of around £150 million a year and will pass £1 billion by 2020. It would already have paid for either:

• Training up 115,000 young people with construction skills - there were 58 per cent fewer completed construction apprenticeships last year than in 2009 and 10,000 fewer construction qualifications being awarded by colleges, apprenticeships and universities since 2013.
• Filling almost 8.5 million potholes – current funding levels mean councils are only able to keep pace with patching up our roads and face a £12 billion roads repair backlog which would already take more than a decade to clear. 
• Providing 27 million hours of homecare - the funding gap in adult social care is growing by a minimum of just over £700 million a year and is placing enormous pressure on vital services and providers supporting the elderly and disabled.

Cllr Peter Box, LGA Housing Spokesman, said:

"It is unacceptable for communities to keep being forced to spend hundreds of millions each year to cover a third of the cost of all planning applications.

"Government should recognise the huge pressure this is placing on already stretched planning departments that are crucial to building the homes and roads that local communities need but which have seen 46 per cent reductions in funding over the past five years.

"The Spending Review should allow local authorities to recover the actual cost of applications and end such a needless waste of taxpayers' money when developers are willing to pay more.

"The number of planning applications being submitted is on the rise but councils are working flat-out to approve almost nine in every 10 planning applications. Locally-set fees would also allow councils to protect residents from hiked fees while developers and housebuilders could pay more to improve the ability of councils to speed up the planning process and maintain high-quality planning decisions."

Melanie Leech, Chief Executive of the British Property Federation, said:

"Both the public and private sectors are very clear that the current lack of resources for local authority planning departments is a problem, and that it is hindering development that can bring about much needed regeneration across the UK.

"The Government has talked a lot about how much it wants to get Britain building again, and ahead of the Spending Review we would strongly advise against further national cuts to planning departments if it wants to make this a reality. Instead, we would like to see Government undertake a review looking at how the private sector might be able to make additional payments to planning departments in return for a quality service."

NOTES

• ‘Spending Smarter: A Shared Commitment', the LGA's 2015 Spending Review submission can be read here.