Audit Commission

Council planning departments that are struggling to cope with a shortage of experienced planners must find innovative ways to close the gap between what is expected of the system and what skills and resources are available to them.

In an independent report published today (Thursday 9 February), the Audit Commission finds that a national shortage of experienced planners in the public sector, the high number of applications and increasing government expectations are all having an impact on councils' ability to provide planning services themselves.

The Planning System: Matching Expectations and Capacity says councils could learn from local authorities that have taken radical approaches to addressing heavy workloads. These include using private firms to take on mainstream planning work like processing applications and appeals or even a comprehensive development control function. Using private consultants appropriately would free up council staff to work on more contentious or strategic issues.

Commission research found other examples of innovation, including sharing resources and introducing rigorous pre-application processes which iron out many difficulties at the outset.

The Commission's study aims to support the central role of planners in the government's vision to create sustainable communities. Wide-ranging government reforms designed to speed up the system and recast planning as a strategic and proactive force are putting a strain on a system which deals with nearly 700,000 applications a year. To add to the pressure, planner posts are second only to social workers as the most difficult to fill in local government.

Sir Michael Lyons, acting Chairman of the Audit Commission, said:
"There is a critical shortage of people with the right skills in planning departments. Councils must think creatively to ease workload pressures, but the government can also do its part by rethinking the way it sets targets for the planning system and by continuing to provide strong national leadership in promoting the need for housing growth."

The study finds that the government's emphasis on speed is having a perverse effect on the quality of services delivered by some planning departments. To address this, the Commission recommends that the 13-week performance indicator for processing major applications is amended to measure compliance with planning delivery agreements instead.

The Commission has captured creative practices in an online toolkit, which will help councils learn and improve. It has also produced a guide for councillors exploring some of the myths associated with bringing in private sector services. These can be found at www.audit-commission.gov.uk/planning

Notes to editors

1. A number of local authorities are highlighted in the report as case studies. They are: Southampton City Council - Using external solicitors to produce S106 legal agreements has reduced the average time taken to issue them from 67 weeks to seven. Redditch Borough Counci -l Employed a planning firm to help cover peaks in workload. This supporting role enabled the council to increase the number of applications it dealt with in eight weeks. Birmingham City Council - Using external consultants to deal with appeals has allowed the authority to concentrate on improving the processing of planning applications. High Peak Borough Council - Used external consultants to produce planning policy. Salford City Council - The only council in the country to provide a comprehensive development control function through the private sector. North Northants Together - Five authorities starting to work together to prepare a joint local development framework. They are Wellingborough, Kettering, East Northamptonshire, Corby and Northamptonshire County Council.
2. The report also looks to Australia, the Netherlands and Scotland for best practice. And it profiles Berkshire County Council, which used a technical services company to provide planning services until the local authority was abolished in 1998.
3. The Audit Commission is an independent body responsible for ensuring that public money is spent economically, efficiently and effectively, to achieve high quality local services for the public. Our remit covers around 11,000 bodies in England, which between them spend more than £180 billion of public money each year. Our work covers local government, health, housing, community safety and fire and rescue services.
4. As an independent watchdog, we provide important information on the quality of public services. As a driving force for improvement in those services, we provide practical recommendations and spread best practice. As an independent auditor, we ensure that public services are good value for money and that public money is properly spent.