The government consultation on technical consultation in planning revisits the national scheme of delegation following previous feedback.
The concept has been broadly supported as it provides clarity and consistency across England. However, there are concerns it could become overly prescriptive and lead to more applications going to committee or result in a lack of political oversight.
Here we discuss how the proposed two-tier system would work.
Tier A – applications to be determined under delegated powers
This would include all the things you would expect to be determined by officers, as they follow after the principle of development has been agreed; NMAs, conditions, reserved matters, and minor developments.
In theory this should enable decision making to speed up, but of course it doesn’t change the case officer’s workload!
Tier B – all other development
Again, to be delegated, but subject to agreement by the Chief Planning Officer and the Chair of planning committee.
This will allow for the complex and contentious applications to be determined by committee. This will hopefully reduce the length of committee meetings.
There would also be the benefit of reducing the time taken for officers to prepare for committee, which currently leads to the determination of other applications being put to one side in favour of the committee cycle.
Redressing the balance of decision-making
These changes pose a real opportunity to redress the balance of decision-making where planning committees dominate officers’ workloads, prejudicing the determination of other applications which in turn delays the delivery of housing.
Mandatory Councillor training
Underpinning all the questions in the consultation document, which go beyond those mentioned in this post, is the need for mandatory Councillor training. This is a widely supported proposal to ensure Councillors can only sit on planning committees if they have been trained and are appropriately certified.
Training for Councillors is essential and should lead to improved decision making. The training needs to be readily available and delivered at some speed to ensure that the number of planning committees held per year are not prejudiced through not having enough certified Councillors reflective of the political make-up of the Council.
The big benefit
The proposed changes have the potential to make the planning process more transparent, with less guessing as to whether an application needs to be reported to planning committee. The big question is will it help speed up decision making?
