Empirical evidence is starting to emerge, as speculated upon earlier in year, that there will indeed be a significant increase in the number of planning applications being submitted this year, certainly for residential development and largely, it is held, driven by the introduction of Grey Belt. TerraQuest, the company behind the Planning Portal, has reported that the number of new homes for which planning permission was sought between the 1 July and 30 September this year was 68% higher than during the same period last year.
As I said in the introduction to the first Snagging List episode (episode number 143), if this increase in planning applications is to make a meaningful contribution to the Government's new home target within the parliamentary term, then these applications will need to be transacted an awful lot faster than applications have been transacted hitherto.
According to research by Lichfields for the LPDF and Richborough, the average time taken to determine a major outline application has risen from 8 months in 2014 to two years in 2024.
That first Snagging List episode focused on the application process, from pre-app, determination and committees to conditions and Section 106 Agreements. That of course though is only a part of the development process and it was suggested during that recording that the post-consent delays to getting permissions implemented warrant an episode in their own right and so this is that follow-up episode.
According to Lichfields’ third ‘Start to Finish’ report, published last year, on sites of more than 500 homes it takes an average of between 1.3 and 1.6 years from detailed consent to first completion. For sites of between 50 and 99 homes that period is an average of 2.3 years, and for sites of between 100 and 499 homes that period is 3.2 years.
What are the factors that cause the delay between a LPA issuing a decision notice and JCBs starting work on site, and what can be done about them?
These are the questions that you are about to hear discussed by old friends of the podcast Andrew Taylor, Emma Williamson and Ros Eastman (who contributed to the first Snagging List episode), and new friends of the podcast Mat Capper, Jonathan Gimblett and Ben Phillips.
In a conversation recorded online, they talk about all of the other consenting regimes that need navigating, such as waste water, highways and utilities; they talk about the need for LPAs to be able to replicate a developer’s delivery team approach; and they offer some 'top tips', which are especially timely in the context of the Government’s proposed reforms to the statutory consultee system.
Comments
Post a Comment