The Conservative Party Conference is in full swing this week,
and Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick took to the podium on Monday
to announce the Government's "vision" for reforming
the planning system, with an emphasis on measures to "speed up
and simplify" the process. We have been here before!
The latest proposals to speed up the planning system include a
review of application fees to ensure council planning departments
are properly resourced, providing more qualified planners to
process applications. On the other hand, the Government is
considering the expansion of provisions requiring fees to be
refunded if councils take too long to determine specific planning
applications.
A planning green paper will be published in November 2019 that
will set out the Government's ambition to reduce planning
conditions by a third, and will seek views on rights to secure
permission to demolish old commercial buildings for new housing via
the permission in principle route,
