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Government to reform statutory consultee 'bureaucratic burden'



The government has announced plans to reform the role statutory consultees play in planning applications, highlighting the “bureaucratic burden” these can present.


The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will see organisations like Sport England, Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust no longer be required to input on planning decisions.

This will also see the scope of other statutory consultees narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environment protection.

Currently, over 25 such organisations are listed as consultees and can often cause delays by taking too long to provide advice, re-opening already-solved issues and submitting automatic holding objections.

According to the government, in the past three years over 300 applications were forced to be escalated for consideration by the secretary of state due to such disagreements.

For example, in Bradford a development to create 140 new homes next to a cricket club was significantly delayed because the application was thought to have not adequately considered the speed of cricket balls.

In addition to reforming this list of consultees and narrowing the scope of objections, the government is seeking to institute a new performance framework, in which the CEOs of key statutory consultees report on their performance directly to Treasury and MHCLG Ministers.

Local authorities would be required to consult with such organisations where necessary to do so, and decisions should not be delayed beyond a 21 day statutory deadline.

“We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays – putting a hold on people’s lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need,” said deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner.

“New developments must still meet our high expectations to create the homes, facilities and infrastructure that communities need.”

An official consultation over these plans will be issued this Spring.



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