Major planning applications are taking almost double the government’s 13-week target to be approved, according to a major survey by GL Hearn and the British Property Federation.
The average approval time of major applications in London, Greater Manchester and Greater Bristol was 25 weeks, the third Annual Planning Survey found.
Although times have improved since the survey’s inception, it found that 71% of planning applications were dissatisfied with the length of time it takes to get decisions.
Both local authorities and developers called for the system to change as a result of the time taken for major applications to be heard.
Almost two-thirds of councils said the current system had significant problems – a view shared by 47% of planning applicants.
Roughly half of local authorities and planning applications felt the reforms introduced by the government had increased development activity.
But over half of developers identified the planning system as a major barrier to increasing the number of houses built, with a shortage of land cited as the second most important obstacle.
In London the length of time for major application decisions increased marginally on last year from 24 weeks to 26 weeks but the volume of applications rose significantly by 32%.
Five London boroughs – Bromley, Ealing, Hounslow, Kensington & Chelsea and Waltham Forest – saw application volumes increase 100% or more.
In Greater Manchester the average time was 22 weeks and in Bristol it was 29 weeks.
GL Hearn head of investor and developer planning Shaun Andrews said that while the NPPF had helped improve times, there was much more work to do to improve house building volumes.
“The government needs to focus on how local planning authorities can be better resourced and encouraged to share best practice,” he said.
“There has arguably been too much focus on the system itself and not enough on the people and resources that are needed to run it. To achieve the step change required, significant investment is needed and the government needs to look further at ways the private sector resources can be leveraged.”
Outgoing British Property Federation chief executive Liz Peace also warned that the survey did not pick up the time spent by developers in pre-application discussions.
“It is also clear that the community infrastructure levy needs further reform, as it continues to cause both local authorities and developers consternation, and in some places further delays the delivery of important schemes,” she added.
