The Alliance has responded to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities’ consultation to speed up the planning process for the development of commercial buildings.
Whilst our members would welcome the acceleration of decision making, we are concerned that without safeguards in place, speed could sacrifice the ability for councils to fully consider complex planning applications in the proposed 10-week limit. This could potentially lead to planning refusals as councils struggle to comply with the narrow time window.
Due to the growing range of complex issues within the planning system, we believe ensuring planning departments are adequately resourced, and setting a 13-week determination target would help ensure planning authorities reaching rational, evidence-based judgements.
Read our response here
