Michael Gove has written to 10 local authorities warning that he will take over their planning functions unless they improve performance.
In a series of letters released today, the levelling up and housing secretary said he was “minded to designate” the planning authorities of Calderdale Council, Cotswold District Council, Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, Guildford Borough Council, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, the Peak District National Park Authority, Pendle Borough Council, Portsmouth City Council, Vale of White Horse District Council and Waverley Borough Council.
If those authorities are designated, planning applications will be sent directly to the Planning Inspectorate, avoiding the local authority.
In the letters, which were dated 12 April, Gove stated: “I have significant concerns about the performance of a handful of local authorities including your council.”
Each of the planning authorities had failed to achieve the 70% threshold of applications processed within 13 weeks.
While Cotswold council only marginally fell below the threshold with 69.6%, others were “far below the expected threshold”, with Hinckley & Bosworth processing just 46.5% and Guildford 50.1%.
Gove added: “That is indicative of a very poor-quality service to local residents and a significant deterrent to investment in your local housing market and wider economy. That is not good enough.”
However, he recognised more recent data had shown some improvement in most cases, with the exception of the Vale of White Horse, where performance fell from 63.2% between October 2020 and September 2022 to 60.1% in the last quarter of 2022.
The 10 local planning authorities have been given until June to improve performance.
And simply meeting the bare minimum will not be sufficient improvement, Gove warned.
“I want to be clear, however, that I expect the performance of your planning service to exceed our performance thresholds and stay above it consistently,” he told the councils. “I will monitor your performance closely and, if during this period your performance falls below the required threshold, I will not hesitate to use my powers to designate your council later this year.”
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