Proposals come ahead of publication of planning and infrastructure bill
The government is proposing to overhaul the statutory consultee system in a bid to speed up the planning system.
Under the new plans, organisations such as Sport England, Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust will be removed from the list of statutory consultees.
According to the government, the list of statutory consultees - official stakeholders legally required to provide advice on planning decisions - has grown “haphazardly” over time and now includes more than 25 organisations.
It said that while consultees play an important role in the planning system, problems have been reported by councils, including consultees failing to engage proactively, submitting automatic holding objections which are later withdrawn, and re-opening issues that have been dealt with in local plans.
The government’s proposals will see the scope of these consultees narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environmental protection.
“We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays – putting a hold on people’s lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need,” said Angela Rayner, secretary of state in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
“New developments must still meet our high expectations to create the homes, facilities and infrastructure that communities need.”
According to MHCLG, disagreements from consultees forced more than 300 applications over the last three years to be escalated for consideration by the secretary of state.
As well as shaking up the statutory consultee list, the department also wants planners to make better use of standing guidance instead of case-by-case responses and to clarify that authorities should only be consulting relevant bodies when necessary.
It also plans to introduce a new performance framework, in which the chief executives of key statutory consultees report on their performance directly to Treasury and MHCLG Ministers.
This Spring, it will consult on the impacts of its planned reforms to the consultee system.
The announcement today comes ahead of the introduction of the government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill this week.
According to reports in The Times, the bill could include measures to strip council planning committees of powers to decide all but the largest building schemes.
Earlier this year, the government published a policy paper inviting views on models for a national scheme of delegation, which would standardise the operation of planning committees, as well as the creation of smaller targeted planning committees specifically for strategic development and mandatory training for committee members.
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