RTPI challenges Governments £3bn planning delay figure

"We think there is no evidence that planning costs the economy £3 billion," said Trudi Elliott, chief executive of the RTPI, at a Parliamentary select committee hearing. Elliot claims the figure relates to a study undertaken 20 years ago.

The £3 billion figure originally appeared in the Treasury's "Plan for Growth", which was published in March 2011. Since then the figure has been drawn upon and used by many ministers, Planning Resource report.

Elliott believes that the figure is borne from a Reading University report, which does not contain any reliable evidence itself.

"I read the Reading University report and actually that doesn’t have evidence of the £3 billion," she said. "That refers back to the Barker report in 2006. What Kate Barker said in that report was that there is very little evidence about costs of planning to the economy. The only study that report could find was a 1992 CBI study."

The RTPI submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Treasury in order to establish the Government's evidence behind this claim. The Treasury responsded to say that it did not have "any recorded information in scope of your request", Elliott said.

Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark responded to Elliott's claims and said that the figure was the "first line of a conclusion that Professor Michael Ball, who is a pretty distinguished academic in this matter".

The Government has "inherited" many studies that demonstrate that the planning system "could be better," said Clark. The government-commissioned 2008 Killian Pretty review had stated that "planning decisions still take longer in the UK than other countries with which we compete internationally", said Clark.