Is the housing secretary proper about how lengthy planning permission takes?

The declare: A regular housing growth takes a mean of 5 years to undergo the planning system.

Verdict: Developments of greater than 1,000 dwellings could take that lengthy, however these are very giant. The overwhelming majority of developments are a lot smaller and don’t take that lengthy.

Robert Jenrick, secretary of state for housing, communities and native authorities, wrote an article within the Sunday Telegraph speaking about how he needs to vary the planning system in England.

Within the article, he wrote: “Below the present system, it takes a mean of 5 years for the standard housing growth to undergo the planning system – earlier than a spade is even within the floor.”

The Actuality Verify workforce requested his division the place this determine got here from and was pointed in the direction of a chart within the Letwin Overview from 2018, which checked out why it takes so lengthy to finish giant housing initiatives.

The chart options 15 housing developments along with how lengthy they took to get planning permission.

Once you add up how lengthy they every took and divide by the variety of developments, you do certainly get about 5, regardless that solely 5 of them took 5 years or longer.

The 8,861 unit Barking Riverside growth takes up the typical significantly – its planning course of took 12.5 years.

The event of the location of the Barking energy station was initially presupposed to be supported by an extension of the Docklands Mild Railway however will now be served by a London Overground Station.

It wanted different transport hyperlinks together with roads, in addition to faculties, utilities and group services.

Mr Jenrick didn’t give a definition of an ordinary housing growth, however based on analysis from the property brokers Savills. round 65% of houses given consent are on websites of fewer than 100 items.

There’s additionally no authorized definition of an ordinary growth, though any growth with greater than 10 dwellings is counted as a significant residential growth.

The smallest one within the collection of 15 used to succeed in the five-year common is the 1,187 unit Trumpington Meadows growth in Cambridge. The biggest is the 15,737 unit growth in North Greenwich. In order that they do appear to be very giant developments quite than what is likely to be deemed customary.

“It’s a simple throwaway remark and can be true in some circumstances,” stated Tony Mulhall, planning knowledgeable on the Royal Establishment of Chartered Surveyors.

“Many of the purposes being referred to could have gone to enchantment or maybe judicial overview.”

The property consultancy Lichfields did some related analysis into how lengthy the planning course of took for different-sized developments.

It discovered that the method takes longer the larger the event, which is not any nice shock.

The larger the event, the extra components must be handled corresponding to water, electrical energy, roads and companies corresponding to GP surgical procedures and faculties.

The common size of time for planning does not get shut to 5 years till you begin taking a look at developments of greater than 1,000 items.

The federal government has already had a overview of planning appeals, led by Bridget Rosewell. She stated: “At current, the inquiry course of takes practically a yr to finish from lodging the enchantment to a choice for inspector determined circumstances.”

“That is simply too lengthy.” She urged that this a part of the method may very well be diminished to 6 months fairly simply.

The federal government publishes statistics on how lengthy planning selections by district degree planning authorities in England have been taking. (The overwhelming majority of residential planning selections are taken at this degree, though the secretary of state and Mayor of London may additionally become involved.)

The most recent figures present that 89% of main purposes have been determined “inside 13 weeks or the agreed time” (planning departments and builders could agree an extension to the 13 week time restrict).

So whereas the largest developments could certainly common 5 years for planning, that is not the case for many initiatives.

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