Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Government reforms of the planning system have not improved the planning process for housebuilders and developers.
That’s according to a survey published by Building magazine.
The survey of more than 230 housebuilders, found that 49% think achieving planning permission has become more difficult in the last two years, compared with just 10% that believe it has got easier, and over a third that said it was unchanged.
In addition, just a fraction of the housebuilders surveyed – 6% – said local authorities have become more open to development since the publication of the government’s National Planning Policy Framework, which placed a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” at the heart of the planning system.
More than twice that number, 15%, say councils are now less open to development, with a majority of 56% saying it has made no difference.
The findings come despite the fact chancellor George Osborne said in 2011 that the government’s planning reforms were “key to our economic recovery”.
