Planners have expressed doubts that planning is getting quicker despite quarterly figures showing half of all decisions are now made inside the 13-week target.
Planning experts say the targets mean departments are straining to improve their place in the league table rather than actually improve performance.

In the three months to June, planning authorities dealt with 176,000 planning applications, the highest number for 14 years, and 11% up on the same period in 2002.

Importantly, 50% of major applications were made within 13 weeks, up from 43% in the previous three months and 6% higher than the equivalent figure a year ago.

However, only one-third of local authorities reached the government target of getting 60% of their major planning decisions made on time.

David Barraclough, planning policy coordinator at the Royal Town Planning Institute said: "Government pressure to speed up the planning process through league tables is just about quantity and nothing at all to do with quality. We're seeing planning authorities just refusing applications before the end of the application period, rather than trying to take the time to negotiate better schemes."

Gideon Amos, director of the Town and Country Planning Association, said: "You can hit a target but it doesn't mean you improve a service. We need a completely different approach that takes account of the fact that planning is delivering homes, jobs and communities."

Source

Housing Today