06 Mar 2024
The housing minister has blasted SADC for failings in its planning process and ordered that any applications for non-major development can now be made direct to the Planning Inspectorate.
Lee Rowley MP, minister of state for housing, planning and building safety, told chief executive Amanda Foley that the district council was not meeting its required performance levels in order to deliver the homes and investment the country needs, particularly in relation to the speed of determining applications for non-major developments.
These are developments of between one and nine homes, floorspace of less than 1,000 square metres, or developments where the site area is less than one hectare in size.
The minister said: “On 10 January 2024, a letter from the director for leasehold, land and planning systems confirmed that the council was at risk of designation for speed of decision-making for applications for non-major development, based on data for the two years up to the end of September 2023, where the performance of the council was 69.3%.
“This does not meet the required threshold of 70% or more of an authority’s decisions made within the statutory determination period or such extended period as has been agreed in writing with the applicant.”
He dismissed evidence put forward by the council as failing to adequately justify exceptional circumstances, highlighting how the authority’s performance over the last four quarters has been persistently below the required threshold.
As a result, SADC has now been designated under the powers conferred by section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which means any applications for non-major development can be made directly to the Planning Inspectorate, although applicants will have the option of continuing to apply to the council in the usual way if they wish. Designation does not apply to householder applications and retrospective applications which will continue to be submitted to the council.
The council must now prepare an action plan for approval identifying actions that address the areas of weakness that led to it being designated, and both the Planning Inspectorate and Department for Housing, Planning and Building Safety will work closely in developing this plan going forwards.
In response to SADC being designated, council leader Cllr Chris White said: “Naturally we are disappointed, given that the council is confident that we have a robust plan in place to deal with the current backlog in planning applications.
“Our hard-working staff are dedicated to delivering an effective planning service and the council is already making steady and welcome progress in the right direction. The team has worked hard to reduce the backlog which has resulted in a reduction from 480 cases to 300 cases since October last year.
“Action has also been taken to implement recommendations made by the Planning Advisory Service which visited the council in November to undertake a review of the service. They are aware of our improvement plan. Indeed, the Government has recently provided additional funding through the Planning Skills Development Fund which means we have been able to plan for a greater number of staff to tackle the planning backlog.
“This funding was conditional on our improvement plan. It is therefore baffling why the Government has chosen this moment to initiate the designation process.
“SADC has one of the busiest planning teams of any district in the country yet planning fees in no way cover the cost of operating the service. The additional funding has been an extremely important factor in being able to deliver the improvements made so far.
“As with any improvement measure things may look statistically worse before they get better. The council is committed to addressing the backlog and as a result we will be pushing to determine more applications, both to tackle those in our backlog and to keep on top of new applications.
“We will, of course, work with DLUHC and the Planning Advisory Service to ensure the service improves further and works as efficiently as possible given the funding position.”
