Overhaul of planning system may deter development, warns FSB

By GARETH MACKIE
Published on 23/06/2012 02:25

Scottish Government proposals to overhaul the country’s planning system could discourage development and may not improve local councils’ planning performance, small business leaders warned yesterday.

Plans unveiled in March by local government and planning minister Derek Mackay called for an increase in planning application fees, but only if there is an “inextricable link” to an improved service and quicker decision making among councils.

Under the current planning regime, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said a retail and leisure development of 10,000 square metres would attract an average application fee of £15,950, but this could more than treble to £73,000 if the government’s plans are adopted.

The planning application fee for a single house could more than double to £800, which the FSB described as “alarmingly substantial”.

Property agency Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) estimates that revisions to the regulations would, in some cases, increase the maximum planning fee from the present £15,950 to £100,000. Mackay said the maximum level of fee proposed is “significantly lower” than elsewhere in the UK.

The government’s consultation document said few authorities were performing well on timescales for deciding applications. Between October and December 2011, 68.3 per cent of local applications were decided within two months. While that was down from 69.1 per cent in the previous quarter, the percentage of “major” applications decided in under four months improved from 25.7 to 31.9 per cent. Under the plans, poorly performing councils could be forced to revert to lower application fees, but the FSB said in its submission to the consultation exercise that it was sceptical that the sanctions would ever be used.

It added: “Whilst we recognise that current fee levels do little to incentivise better performance, the lack of assurance that the additional income accrued from these increases will be reinvested into improving the system will make the currently proposed increases in fee levels difficult to stomach for small businesses and developers.”

Andy Willox, the FSB’s Scottish policy convener, said: “Despite a decade of warm words and promises, there’s widespread recognition that the planning system in Scotland still provides a tepid service for the Scottish small business community.

“We do need reform. But hiking fees with no guarantee of an improved service is not the way to do it.”

The FSB has recommended a “modest” rise in fees and said local authority performance should be reviewed after five years to assess whether the process has improved before any further increases are introduced.

Anthony Aitken, head of UK planning at property firm Colliers International, has said a hike in Scotland is inevitable as it has fallen behind the levels charged by local authorities in England, where fees for large developments can be as much as £250,000.

The consultation period ended yesterday and Mackay said: “The FSB’s contribution on this issue is welcome and we will take these views, and those of all other respondents, into account when deciding the best way forward.”