Developers are facing a postcode lottery when submitting planning applications, with new research revealing the discrepancy in resourcing and productivity across council departments.
Applications decided per head in 2015 at planning departments in 17 regional cities surveyed ranged from 69.2 per staff member in Birmingham to 21.8 per staff member in Norwich and Sheffield.
MIPIM UK NEWS 2016: In London, applications decided ranged from 10.7 per staff member in Barking & Dagenham to 133.8 per staff member in Wandsworth.
Estates Gazette submitted Freedom of Information requests to all London boroughs and 17 regional city councils asking how many full-time positions they had in their planning departments in 2005 and 2015. Those figures were then compared with government data on the number of applications received and decided per planning authority in those years.
Planning departments usually include administrative and building control staff as well as people who deal directly with planning applications. Over the 10-year period, many have undergone significant restructures.
EG’s data shows a reduction in staff numbers of 30.4% in the 12 regional city councils which responded in full. This compares with a 22.9% decrease in the number of applications received and a 24.8% fall in the number of applications decided.
Of the 25 London boroughs that responded in full there was a 9.6% increase in staff numbers, an 8.8% decrease in the number of applications decided, and a 1.9% decrease in the number of applications received.
The variations add up to longer delays in processing applications and higher costs for developers. In 78.9% of cases where resourcing was reduced, the number of decisions relative to applications received went down.
Waheed Nazir, Birmingham City Council’s strategic director, economy, said: “Not having sufficient staff to respond to applicants is restraining growth. Limited resource capacity is limiting planning authorities’ ability to process applications.”
Discrepancies in the productivity of planning departments is illustrated by Birmingham facing the most dramatic cuts of any regional city surveyed (57.5% over 10 years), while achieving the most applications processed per head in 2015.
Nazir oversaw a massive restructure of Birmingham’s planning department in 2010, cutting 40% of staff as it experienced a fall in planning fee income and cuts to central government grant funding after the financial crash.
Cutting managerial roles and dividing the department into four geographical areas helped to create a more nimble and efficient workforce. However, Nazir said government needed to allow councils to determine their own planning fees for minor and medium-sized applications, which were creating a funding black hole which he had to fill with funding allocated for other departments.
Pat Hayes, Ealing’s executive director of regeneration and housing, said freeing up planners from mundane domestic applications through deemed consents for certain building types in defined areas would help save money and retain skilled staff.
The research comes as a survey by the British Property Federation and GL Hearn found that industry opinion of the planning system is the worst recorded, with some 80% of applicants dissatisfied with the time it takes for decisions to be made.
To see the full data set, click here to download the Excel spreadsheet
Duncan Cumberland, development director at Muse Developments, said: “The time that it takes to get applications registered is quite an issue as opposed to when they are actually in the system. If you do not get a strong central officer who can co-ordinate the consultees, that can be a problem as well. You could have been in the system for a while but you might be waiting a long time for Highways to make its comments.”
To help fill the funding gap, councils have been resorting to discretionary charges for planning performance agreements, pre-application advice and invalid planning applications.
The government has recently consulted on measures to introduce competition into the planning system through pilot schemes where developers choose an “alternative provider” – a private sector body or alternative local authority – to process planning applications.
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We have got Britain building again, with almost 900,000 homes built since the end of 2009 and more than 250,000 planning permissions delivered last year – the highest on record and up by 70% on five years ago. Now our plans to introduce competition into the planning system will help speed up the process and get more homes built.”
Top five department cuts in regions |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| FTEs in planning dept | 2005 | 2015 | Change |
| Birmingham | 173 | 73.5 | -57.5% |
| Leeds | 189 | 97 | -48.7% |
| Guildford | 94.6 | 60.2 | -36.4% |
| Nottingham | 55 | 36 | -34.6% |
| Glasgow | 147.4 | 103.8 | -29.7% |
Top five department cuts in London |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| FTEs in planning dept | 2005 | 2015 | change |
| Brent | 52 | 30 | -42.3% |
| Hounslow | 70 | 42.5 | -39.3% |
| Redbridge | 92.5 | 49.5 | -46.5% |
| Camden | 89.2 | 68.7 | -23% |
| Harrow | 55 | 48 | -12.7% |
Leeds vs Southwark |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 planning FTEs | Apps decided | Major apps decided | |
| Leeds | 97 | 4,387 | 225 |
| Southwark | 98 | 2,243 | 66 |
How many planning staff work on applications |
|
|---|---|
| Manchester | 54 out of 77 |
| City of London | 22 out of 36 |
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• To send feedback, e-mail Louisa.Clarence-Smith@estatesgazette.com or tweet @LouisaClarence or @estatesgazette
