David Pretty, the new chief executive of Barratt Developments, has attacked the planning system in the UK less than a week after coming into office.
Pretty told EGi News that acute housing shortages were a problem for the industry.
He said: “Fifteen years ago non-contentious planning applications took around eight weeks to go through. Today it can be around a year. That can’t be right.”
Blaming planning delays on a spate of ‘nimbyism’ which “tries to resist housing development of any kind on principle”, Pretty called for a fast-track planning application system for inner city regeneration schemes.
Pretty also said that prices were more likely to rise than to fall, given the great extent to which demand is outpacing supply.
He added that forward sales for Barratt Developments were 10% up on last year, with the market for 2003 looking “robust”.
Pretty, who was previously managing director, took over as chief executive from chairman and CEO Frank Eaton, who died in a car accident two weeks ago.
EGi News 22/10/02
