<b></b><br>Local planning authorities will be given stricter timetables for assessing planning applications and tougher sanctions if they fail to perform under proposed changes to the planning system.<p></p><p> The planning reform Green Paper, which will be published by the end of the year, will focus on taking some of the complex tiers out of the planning system and ensuring that resources are available to planning departments and that those resources are efficiently used.</p><p> Speaking in an exclusive interview with HouseBuilder, planning and housing minister Lord Falconer said that the planning system was &amp;“very complicated, very uncertain and takes too long&amp;”.</p><p>&amp;“It slows down the building of houses and increases the preparation costs for new housing,&amp;” he said. &amp;“The time is right to deliver change in the system.&amp;”</p><p>Falconer said that his side of the bargain would be to make the planning process more efficient and more effective, and housebuilders - for their part - would build houses of good quality, to good designs and to PPG3 standards.</p><p>Falconer said the Green Paper would look to take some of the layers out of the system to speed up the process and would try to &amp;“give a clear steer to users of the system of what …