SME APPG calls for planning investment

More investment is needed urgently in the planning function of local planning authorities and in the training of planners and other related professionals if the housebuilding industry is to deliver the government’s target of 300,000 homes a year.

That is one of several recommendations of a report published today by the All Party Parliamentary Group for SME Housebuilders which asked its members what the problems with the planning system are and what the solutions may be. It found that LPA staff shortages were the top issue faced by SME housebuilders in their attempts to engage with the planning process.

Other recommendations in the report include:

· A small sites register should be set up to help local authorities respond more quickly to any failure to meet local housing need and assist SME housebuilders in delivery
· On strategic sites, a certain percentage of delivery should be earmarked for local SME housebuilder delivery
· Design Reviews should take place at an early stage in the process and not later on where any benefit is likely to be small and the costs, in terms of delay, and associated costs of changing plans, road layouts, landscape and drainage details, are significant
· More efforts need …