Councils keen to reduce the costs of validating planning applications should consider encouraging applicants to use planning agents who submit the highest quality applications, according to a report from the Planning Advisory Service (PAS).
That suggestion, alongside proposals for some form of accredited agent scheme and a league table of average determination times, were highlighted in the document. It also suggested that creating an exemplar system of forms and templates ‘that best facilitates a valid successful application’ might also improve performances and cut costs.
The report: ‘Where does all the money go’ covers the initial findings of a study which is looking at costs, processes and work volumes in local planning authorities and how to make improvements. The study found that none of the councils recovered the cost of providing a planning service from fee income. Typically every £1 of fee income from developers was matched by a similar level of spend from the planning authority. In some cases the figure rose to more than £2.
The study found that that the average fee for applications was £370 in 2009 while the cost of servicing these applications was £896. Of that total some £243 went on generic activities (including staff management and training), £172 on strategic planning, £388 on the application process itself and some £93 on enforcement and monitoring.
Data from 15 authorities involving £22m of costs was used in the study which made use of information derived from 130,000 planning applications, 19 development plan documents and the time sheets of over 600 staff.
The report concluded that there was no compelling evidence that previous attempts to reduce workload or complexity in planning, such as online applications and common validation standards have worked. However, John Cummins of Bury Council said that although the council still has problems with the quality and completeness of applications due to the common validation standards, receiving applications electronically enables the council to sort out any such problems quickly. He said: “We are holding more pre-application discussions to ensure applicants get it right first time. Hopefully the new local validation criteria that all local authorities have to publish will improve matters as will the publication of more standing guidance by statutory consultees.
“At Bury we prefer to receive all applications online and have embraced technology to realise significant reductions in both the time and cost of receiving and processing applications. We now register more than 96 per cent of applications within 60 hours (2.5 working days) of receipt, including consultations that are all done electronically, and neighbour notification.”
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