Simplifying the planning process: Enabling private sector businesses to invest and sustain growth


NB: this guest post is by Mimi Macejkova, my Parliamentary Intern and the views expressed are her own.

In a recent letter sent to MPs, Greg Clark, Minister for Decentralisation and Cities of the Department for Communities and Local Government, introduces a Whitehall draft, which reforms a one thousand-page planning document to only 52 pages.

This move is a step closer to fulfilling one of the Government’s goals towards a decentralised and simplified planning model and a shift away from central government interventions that have not had a positive effect on local business capabilities across the country.

The planning documentation has accumulated complex, perplexing wording in breach of many local governments’ rules and regulations.  It is the result of over a decade’s  ‘worth’ of work of the Labour ‘enthusiasts’ who lost the grip of what they aimed to say and kept on creating more and more controversial pages.

The Coalition Government’s  top priority is to restart the economy, generate and sustain growth, and reduce the masses of red tape. Part of the deregulation policy is simplifying the national planning policy, which will be concise, explicit and comprehensible. The draft National Planning Policy Framework is now available here.

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Comments & Responses

One Response so far.

  1. Wikiminster says:

    Part of the problem here is that Local Planning Officers are also overly officious. We posted something from a self builder recently who moans about the problems he faced:

    http://wikiminster.com/opinion/138-grant-shapps-must-slim-down-planning-regulations