{"id":614769,"date":"2023-03-06T07:49:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T13:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/06\/smes-warn-planning-fee-increases-will-hammer-them\/"},"modified":"2023-03-06T07:49:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T13:49:50","slug":"smes-warn-planning-fee-increases-will-hammer-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/06\/smes-warn-planning-fee-increases-will-hammer-them\/","title":{"rendered":"SMEs warn planning fee increases will \u2018hammer\u2019 them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Smaller homebuilders have warned the government against increasing planning application fees after it proposed hiking them by up to a third.<\/p>\n

A current consultation by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is proposing to increase fees for major planning applications by 35 per cent, and for other applications by 25 per cent, with the amounts adjusted annually in line with inflation.<\/p>\n

But Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said the organisation was \u201cpretty sceptical that these higher fees will achieve an improvement under the current broken planning process\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cwe really don\u2019t think it\u2019s the time\u201d to impose what he said was a 13th<\/sup> regulatory cost on the sector in a two-year period.<\/p>\n

The NFB predominantly represents small and medium enterprise (SME) homebuilders and regional contractors.<\/p>\n

Arguing that a previous 20 per cent fee increase in 2018 had not led to better outcomes, Wojtulewicz said that the planning system \u201cbecomes a bit of a revenue-generator for local authorities rather than delivering better outcomes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB), meanwhile, told Construction News<\/em> that the government, rather than smaller developers, should fund more resources for local planning services.<\/p>\n

FMB chief executive Brian Berry said: \u201cPlanning departments are in desperate need of extra funding and as it stands the planning system is too slow and complex for the small, local builders to navigate. The required funding should not, however, be extracted from small developers. Instead, it should be funded directly by government so that the country can deliver the homes that are so desperately needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cSME housebuilders have faced a decades-long decline in output and are facing a deluge of new costs from biodiversity net gain mitigation to the proposed building safety levy \u2013 they simply can\u2019t keep absorbing more expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the new housing minister Rachel Maclean \u201cneeds to think carefully about the increasingly hostile landscape for small housebuilders and realise that they are the ones best placed to deliver the government\u2019s stated ambition of building more beautiful, diverse, and locally focused housing\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s technical consultation<\/a> also includes measures aimed at improving local planning authority performance, including shortening the planning guarantee period to 16 weeks for non-major applications. The guarantee currently entitles applicants to a refund of the fee if a planning decision has not been made within 26 weeks of an application.<\/p>\n

Wojtulewicz said the proposal to shorten the guarantee period should be extended to cover major sites with up to 50 homes, \u201cbecause SMEs are being hammered the most\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can contribute to something, we’ll absolutely do so,\u201d said Wojtulewicz. \u201cBut if the government isn’t willing to tackle the really complicated elements in the broken planning process, then really it’s just another unfair tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the current proposals \u201cdon\u2019t hold local authorities to account to actually deliver a better service\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndustry will always pay more if they get a better service,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that’s simply not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) welcomed the consultation. HBF planning director Sam Stafford said: \u201cThe planning profession, and indeed the wider development industry, has been united for some time in calling for more resources for local planning authorities in order to help build capacity and capability and so this consultation is very much welcomed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stafford said the consultation was also an opportunity to think about self-sustaining funding for planning teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe application itself is only one part of the process,\u201d he said. \u201cLPAs have responsibilities beyond applications, such as local plan-making, that do not generate fees, but are equally important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consulation, which is open until 25 April, is seeking views on whether income from the fee increases should be ringfenced to planning departments \u2013 an idea supported by the Royal Institute of Town PIanners (RITP).<\/p>\n

RITP chief executive Victoria Hills said:\u00a0\u201cWe believe it is necessary to raise fees in line with inflation and ringfence their use\u2026 We’ve heard time and again that developers see the lack of planning resources as the biggest barrier to building new homes, and are willing to pay more for the services they receive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, while increased fees is an important first step, we do not see them as a silver bullet to meeting the capacity requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RITP says that less than half of planning applications were decided within statutory time limits in 2021.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Jonathan Knott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smaller homebuilders have warned the government against increasing planning application fees after it proposed hiking them by up to a third. A current consultation by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is proposing to increase fees for major planning applications by 35 per cent, and for other applications by 25 per cent, with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":614770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22650,2523],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-614769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-increases","8":"category-planning"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}