The team at the HBF has been doing some great work of late uncovering some of the glitches in the planning system such as last week’s reveal that UK Councils are spending £50 million on legal advice over the last three years. Half the appeals were allowed by the Inspector, so it really is a 50:50 chance you’ll get any success.
However, there are some real outriders in the system. Much of the spend is centred in the South East – 9 of the 10 big spenders are located in this region. You would of course expect this given the weight of demand and therefore capital is going to be concentrated where people want to live.
The London Borough of Southwark makes it into the top ten which is a bit of a surprise. They have big ambitions to build a Bakerloo line extension and a new urban quarter in the Old Kent Road. These ambitions cost serious money. Development in the Borough could and should be a catalyst for some eye catching placemaking plays, not a drain on the Council’s budget. If I was at the top table at Southwark I would want to be having a rethink on how to use their limited resources – both cash and people to avoid such enervating pursuits going forward.
The HBF makes the point that many councils have paused or stopped their plan making due to all the changes by central government. You can go on plenty of council websites these days, particularly outside London, and a council will be quite open about this. The website’s planning page will openly state work has been paused due to the various changes at Westminster. That means many developers have no choice but to do planning by appeal hence the uplift in costs.
Planning by appeal is a bad outcome for all. It is not a fast track as some might think. It costs the taxpayer money as demonstrated by the HBF report. It’s also a huge hit on a developer. It takes ages, it requires a whole suite of new reports and by the time you have a decision, the world has changed and you probably need a replan. It’s bad all round and will wipe out an SME with limited equity to take the ride. If it works for anyone, it works for those with deep pockets and so inadvertently advantages the big players to the detriment of all others.
Planning appeals should not be a base case. Planning by appeal is planning to fail.
