Planning powers could be taken over by government
For the second time this year, Portsmouth City Council has been threatened with losing planning powers to the government due to ‘significant concerns’ about the speed at which it makes decisions, prompting criticism from MP Penny Mordaunt.
Communities secretary Michael Gove wrote to the council last month and said that unless improvements were made by June it would be ‘designated’, meaning planning applications could be decided by the Planning Inspectorate rather than the council.
The letter follows a similar threat made in January and says the council is delivering ‘a very poor quality service’ with less than twothirds of applications being determined in time, below the 70 per cent target.
‘I have significant concerns about the performance of a handful of local authorities, including your council,’ Mr Gove’s letter said. ‘Performance… is far below the expected threshold.
‘That is indicative of a very poor quality service to local residents and a significant deterrent to investment in your local housing market and wider economy.’
He said there has been ‘some more encouraging recent data’ but that if this did not continue into June he would designate the council this year.
Portsmouth North MP Ms Mordaunt, who last year spoke at a meeting of the council to urge action to improve the performance of its planning department, said the latest threat was the ‘last chance to buck up’.
‘The best outcome is if the council can improve this service,’ she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. ‘It is about individuals and businesses being about to get on with their own projects but also about the major developments to improve our city that are making slow progress, such as Tipner.’
Ryan Brent, the Conservative opposition spokesman for planning on the council, said there had been ‘a lack of investment and action’.
‘Residentshavefacedyears of systemic failure under former Liberal Democrat leader Cllr [Gerald] Vernon-Jackson which had become stagnant and lacked innovation and investment,’ he said. ‘This will mean that local people have less control of developments within our communities.’