'Cutting Red Tape' review to consider whether councils place unnecessary planning burdens on businesses

According to a government statement, the review will seek to "identify and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to growth and associated costs placed on businesses by local authorities" and among the burdens taken into account will be those "imposed by planning and building control".

The statement said the new phase of the review will "build on and complement issues and evidence in relation to local authorities that emerged from the Cutting Red Tape review into house building".

The government has invited "businesses, trade associations, local authorities and others with an interest in this area" to submit comments via a dedicated webpage or by email to [email protected].

The review into local authorities is open for comments until 28 April.

Planning expert Jamie Lockerbie of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "It is difficult to see how this ‘Cutting Red Tape’ review can meaningfully reduce the amount of red tape associated with planning. Whilst local planning authorities might be able to look at areas such as reducing the volume of documentation required to be submitted with planning applications or endeavouring to reduce the number of conditions attached to planning permissions, in reality all this will amount to is tinkering around the edges."

"Controlling the development of land will always by its very nature entail a significant volume of red tape, and so logically the only way to reduce this is to reduce the categories of development for which planning permission is required, say by extending permitted development rights," said Lockerbie.

The review into house building closed for comments in January. The government was developing its response to the findings ready for publication at the time of writing.