Revised performance targets for the Planning Inspectorate were announced today by planning minister Keith Hill in a bid to deal with a 47% increase in the number of planning appeals received compared to 2000-2001.
By 31 March 2005, the Inspectorate will be expected to be deciding 50% of all planning appeals dealt with by written representations within 16 weeks of receipt and will be expected to be deciding 50% of all planning appeals dealt with by hearings or inquiries within 30 weeks.
For 2003/2004, the Inspectorate had been expected to deal with 80% of written representations within 16 weeks and 80% of hearings and inquiries within 30 weeks.
The scaling back follows an Office of the Deputy Prime Minister report published in February into the rising number of appeals made by developers.
Arup Economics & Planning’s report accused councils of turning down schemes not on merit but to meet government targets for processing applications, leading to a greater number of appeals.
The report said the problem was being exacerbated by lack of resources at local authorities – additional resources from the government’s £350m planning delivery grant are tied to meeting targets.
But Hill said today that “demand has grown because the public and developers trust the Inspectorate”.
The minister said: “This growth in planning appeal numbers has resulted in the Inspectorate falling short of its timeliness targets for this work.
“The government wants to speed up the planning process and, in the longer term our planning reform proposals – now contained in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 – will modify the overall planning context and should reduce the demands made on the Inspectorate.
“However, in the meantime we have decided that the previous targets of issuing 80% of decisions within a time-span determined by whether the appeal is dealt with by means of an exchange of written representations, a hearing or an inquiry should be adjusted.
“By the end of 2004-2005, the Inspectorate will be expected to be issuing 50% of planning appeal decisions within the given time.”
All other targets remain unchanged.
References: EGi News 06/08/04
