Planning rules ‘perverse’

Targets aimed at speeding up English planning decisions may have led to councils rejecting developments, the National Audit Office warns. The 13-week target had resulted in some ‘perverse consequences’ it says, as more applications were rejected. Reviewing 100 applications, the NAO found that 98 per cent of rejections were made within the 13-week target but only 49 per cent of approvals met the target, and on average approvals took 25 weeks. The NAO added that the whole development process from the start of pre-application discussion to the start of construction took on average almost two years.