The BPF said in a statement that it has campaigned for reform of the judicial review system for many years. It said it believes the system leads to delays in commencing development until the claim is heard, thereby delaying or frustrating altogether the potential social and economic benefits arising from the development.
“Access to justice is a vital ingredient of the rule of law in this country, but if the process can be sensibly expedited, this should be welcomed," said BPF chief executive Liz Peace. “Planning cases make up a very small number of the total judicial review cases, but by speeding up the process it would deliver significant benefits in terms of enabling economic activity to take place more quickly, by reducing investors’ costs and the risks that discourage investment."
“A less talked about, but equally important, impact is the cost to local planning authorities and hence the tax payer. They have to spend significant resources in defending each claim, resources which it is increasingly unable to recover, even where the claim fails," Peace said. “Another consideration for the Government is the insufficient number of judges with planning knowledge or experience. Even a few dedicated planning judges would go a long way to speeding up the process for planning cases.”
Cameron announced yesterday that in a move to prevent abuse of the right to have planning decisions judicially reviewed, he would introduce increased charges for applications, a shortening of the three-month limit on applying for judicial review and reduce the number of possible appeals from four to two.
