How long does it take to get planning permission?

The declare: An ordinary housing improvement takes a mean of 5 years to undergo the planning system.

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

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

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

The Actuality Test staff requested his division the place this determine got here from and was pointed in the direction of a chart in the Letwin Review from 2018, which checked out why it takes so long to full giant housing tasks.

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

Whenever you add up how long they every took and divide by the variety of developments, you do certainly get about 5, although solely 5 of them took 5 years or longer.

The 8,861 unit Barking Riverside improvement 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 supposed 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 colleges, utilities and group services.

Mr Jenrick didn’t give a definition of a regular housing improvement, however in accordance to analysis from the property brokers Savills. round 65% of houses given consent are on websites of fewer than 100 models.

There may be additionally no authorized definition of a regular improvement, though any improvement with greater than 10 dwellings is counted as a significant residential improvement.

The smallest one within the collection of 15 used to attain the five-year common is the 1,187 unit Trumpington Meadows improvement in Cambridge. The biggest is the 15,737 unit improvement in North Greenwich. So that they do appear to be very giant developments moderately than what could be deemed commonplace.

“It’s a straightforward throwaway remark and will likely be true in some instances,” mentioned Tony Mulhall, planning knowledgeable on the Royal Establishment of Chartered Surveyors.

“A lot of the functions being referred to may have gone to enchantment or maybe judicial evaluation.”

The property consultancy Lichfields did some related analysis into how long 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 want to be handled similar to water, electrical energy, roads and companies similar to GP surgical procedures and colleges.

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 models.

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

“That is simply too long.” She prompt that this a part of the method may very well be diminished to six months moderately simply.

The federal government publishes statistics on how long planning choices by district stage planning authorities in England have been taking. (The overwhelming majority of residential planning choices are taken at this stage, though the secretary of state and Mayor of London may additionally get concerned.)

The newest figures present that 89% of main functions have been determined inside 13 weeks.

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

What claims would you like BBC Actuality Test to examine? Get in contact

Learn extra from Actuality Test

Follow us on Twitter