Delay to Planning Bill set to cause more local plan chaos

The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill will not receive royal assent until spring next year at the earliest – despite repeated assertions from the government that speeding up the planning system is top priority in tackling the housing crisis.

At last Friday's Core Cities conference in Newcastle, deputy prime minister John Prescott said: "We need a faster, more streamlined planning system to deliver the changes we need.

"Too many planning authorities fail to live up to the commitments in their local plans.

I cannot stress this enough.

"I warn those still failing: I won't hesitate to take action if needed."

Prescott told Housing Today the hold-up did not signal any conflict with his speech. "Our desire to make the planning system fairer, faster and more efficient has not changed, and the bill is an important part of our planning reform agenda, but not the only part."

A statement from the ODPM said the bill was being delayed to allow for the addition of a new clause removing the immunity of Crown land from planning.

The bill was originally due to become law this autumn. Although various interest groups welcomed the hold-up as a chance to influence the bill before it becomes law, many in the sector say the ongoing uncertainty is causing exactly the kind of planning delays the bill is designed to tackle.

Too many planning authorities fail to live up to their commitments. I won’t hesitate to take action

John Prescott, deputy prime minister

Robin Tetlow, managing director of Tetlow King Planning, said the delays were preventing local planning authorities from completing their local plans – documents in which they have to lay out their land-use strategy for the next 10-15 years. Speeding up the delivery of these plans was supposed to be a key plank of the Planning Bill.

Tetlow said: "The uncertainty created by this will have the opposite effect that the bill was supposed to have – it's causing the delay it was intended to overcome, because there isn't enough guidance as to where the policy is going."

"The government should now be giving specific guidance to local authorities that they can't sit on their hands."

Malcolm Griffiths, director of planning services for Bromsgrove council, said: "There is no clear guidance to get on and produce the local development document [the new bill's updated version of the local plan]. The current delay is to no-one's benefit."

Many planning professionals are worried about the logistics of moving towards the new local development document framework before the government has given it a legal basis in law.

The controversy comes as junior planning minister Tony McNulty announced new targets for the speed with which the Planning Inspectorate deals with appeals.