North Staffordshire’s housing market renewal pathfinder has slowed down the planning process at one of the region’s leading councils, ODPM figures have revealed.

Overall, processing of planning applications got faster between September 2002 and September 2004: 161 English councils improved their performance.

But Newcastle-under-Lyme council reported the biggest drop of any English local authority in the percentage of planning applications processed within the 13-week deadline.

The council said the drop could be partly explained by rocketing numbers of planning applications for housing and regeneration projects.

The number of applications it received rose from 800 a year in 2000/1 to 1300 in 2003/4, with much of this rise attributable to the pathfinder.

The council saw its processing performance dip by 32.5% between September 2002 and September 2004, with the percentage of decisions made on major applications within 13 weeks almost halving from 66.7% to 37.8%.

It has also faced “severe” staff recruitment problems.

A spokeswoman said: “The number of planning applications has gradually risen over the past few years and there are several reasons for this.

“The national economy remains buoyant, which means there is more money for people to build houses and for people to improve their properties.

“North Staffordshire is also currently benefiting from a number of regeneration projects that are providing a boost to the local economy.”

A spokesman for the ODPM said it was “taking into account” the extra demands placed on local authorities in growth areas and market renewal pathfinders when distributing planning delivery grant.

Source

Housing Today