Relaxing planning regulations can give stimulus to economic growth

A column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk

AS THE country pulls out of a significant recession and looks to stimulate growth through new development, the speed at which councils decide on planning applications is crucial for both the Scottish Government and the property industry.

Six years have now passed since the introduction of some of the most significant changes to the Scottish planning system in a generation including the need for pre-submission public consultation on major proposals, planning appeals for smaller projects being decided by councils rather than the Government and the introduction of specific deadlines for reaching decisions on planning applications.

However, the latest statistics published by the Scottish Government in April 2015 shine the spotlight on the performance of council planning departments once again. Across Scotland as a whole, councils have reached a view on almost 800 major applications over the last three years and have been fairly consistent in achieving timescales of about nine months on average. However, this is against a four-month target set by the Government for such decisions.

We analysed the average performance for 12 of Scotland’s largest councils over the last three years to assess the average time taken to reach decisions on major planning applications in a given year. Nine of the 12 councils are making decisions faster than two years ago but three are taking much longer.

Of the largest councils, only Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire and, latterly, Dumfries and Galloway have come close to matching or exceeding the government target of four months for major applications. Then you have a group – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Highland and Borders – who take about four or five months to reach a decision on larger proposals. However, some authorities take a year or more to determine these schemes and these include Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, West Lothian and South Lanarkshire.

One of the obstacles often quoted by those involved in planning is the need for legal agreements to be resolved prior to a decision. Whilst it is true that applications of this type do take longer on average than other major applications – between 46 and 50 weeks – there is also a significant difference between council achievements in this regard.

We examined the difference between the highest achiever, which for all of the last three years has been the City of Edinburgh Council (26 weeks) as opposed to Aberdeenshire, Dumfries & Galloway and South Lanarkshire who in specific years have taken on average between 21 and 23 months to decide on more complex applications.

There will be different reasons for these delays depending on the complexity of applications involved, lack of resources in local authority departments or the planning process over-complicating matters.

Whatever the reason, there is no getting away from the fact that some councils appear to be consistently able to reach decisions on major planning applications significantly quicker than others. Those councils who are delaying decisions will do little for the Government’s objective of achieving sustainable economic growth over the coming years.

To address these issues, GVA James Barr would suggest councils look at taking action on a number of fronts. For instance resources could be re-allocated from minor to major applications so that permissions for things like household extensions can be re-assigned to administrative staff or contracted out to other agencies.

Councils could also look at piloting higher application fees for complex projects in return for a guaranteed decision timescale. This process needs to be given teeth so that an applicant is refunded a percentage of the fee paid if the delay is caused by the planning authority and vice versa if delay is down to the applicant. Applicants and local planning authorities also need to reach a decision on the terms of any legal agreement for financial contributions before an application is submitted. Similarly once a site is approved by a council for a certain land use – for example housing – then the council should remove the need to achieve planning permission in principle.

These are just a few options councils could consider in order to get the planning system moving and accelerate economic growth. Alasdair Morrison is planning associate at GVA James Barr.