The government plans to stop a number of official bodies from having a say in planning decisions, in a bid to cut red tape.
The consultation plans to cut out Sport England, the Theatres Trust and the Garden History Society from the list of statutory consultees, and narrow the scope of other organisations who give input into planning decisions.
Fergus Charlton, planning partner at national law firm Michelmores LLP, said: “If there is real evidence that these statutory consultees are delaying significant numbers of well-designed schemes that accord with the development plan, then curtailing their influence will be helpful.
“Without that evidence then labelling the likes of Sport England as a ‘blocker’ is unsubstantiated tinkering and will result in schemes that are more harmful to society as a whole being approved.
“A more considered approach would be to give guidance on the weight that a planning officer ought to give to a delayed, absent or holding statutory consultee response, thereby allowing the smoother functioning of the planning system whilst allowing these professionals to make a positive impact when they properly engage with that system.”
The reforms will be in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
The bill should streamline the planning process, change the way developers meet environmental obligations, and give communities near new electricity pylons money off their energy bills.
Chris May, partner in the planning team at Freeths, said: “Whilst there are certainly many occasions where advice from statutory consultees – or the lack of – has caused significant delays to the determination of applications, in my experience it is usually where the views of that consultee are clearly very important to consideration of the key concerns raised by the application in question.
“I think a focus on improving the efficiency and efficacy of the consultees which are clearly important to decision making would be a better way to attempt to tackle delay in the planning system.
“That being said, removing unnecessary statutory consultation may lead to some, even if minor, improvement in the system and so it is worthwhile reviewing whether there are consultees on the statutory list who can be removed without any major adverse impact on the legitimate interests which some of these consultees are there to protect.”
