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Halman on ... the push for a faster system

Planning, 16 March 2007

The Lifting the Burden white paper was issued in 1985 to help focus on the need to speed up planning. The lifting the burdens - see how they multiply - task force set up last year to review local government processes recently published its recommendations for planning and housing. Much of what it suggests is a sensible response to a system paralysed by its complexity.

Apart from calling for the removal of some key performance indicators, the task force makes a plea to simplify local development framework (LDF) processes.

The imminent planning white paper presents an ideal opportunity to do so.

The proposal to allow core strategies and site-specific development plan documents to be prepared in parallel and examined together would be a good start. Core strategies contain little of interest for local communities. It is the specific proposals for sites and development schemes that matter to them and act as a catalyst for engagement.

Less welcome is the suggestion that government office approval for local development schemes should be suspended. These schemes aim to encourage authorities to programme effective work plans and deliver LDF documents to agreed time frames. External scrutiny helps accountability and is a valuable means of ensuring that documents are delivered on time. It is one management tool that should be embraced, not ditched.

Already, the evidence shows that timescales are pushed out constantly and most councils are failing to deliver in line with agreed milestones.

Removing this objective scrutiny and making it a purely internal document will do nothing to help the more timely delivery of LDFs.

- Gary Halman is a partner at commercial planning adviser HOW and immediate past chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors planning and development faculty. The views expressed are his own.