The UK construction industry (2021) is worth over £115 billion per year, employing 2.1 million people and contributing to 6% of total GDP.(1) It is regulated by a planning system which is often seen as outdated, under resourced and overworked, slowing and perhaps even reducing output, costing the country billions of taxable pounds.
With a “consistently weak” project starts over the first two months of 2023, dropping 55% over the last three months, is it time to act?(2) We should acknowledge that this fall could also be related to supply chain and labour issues as clients reassess the financial advantages of a project. That said, in 2022 construction businesses were going into administration at their fastest rate in a decade,(3) demonstrating that there is a clear lack of profitable work that can be started.
Local authorities cannot be completely blamed for the issues our planning system contains, due diligence must take place and deregulating rarely improves the situation as it causes more confusion within the industry. Planning departments across the country play a huge role in the fabric of our daily lives but often get low priority and funding. With a lack of investment and political support, local plans get delayed, the supply of housing targets missed and application decision dates are not met. This provides a landscape of varying degrees of performance with certain councils performing well and others struggling, impacting their ability to provide a good service.
Previous governments have threatened/applied local authorities with fines or planning power limits perhaps an unproductive and childish manner of dealing with failure.(4) In 2021 the government set out a budget of £650 billion to invest in new national infrastructure and construction projects across the UK in the form of 528 projects with £31 billion being spent in the first year.(5)
Huge sums of money are being spent to keep the country's infrastructure modern and stimulate the economy. Imagine if we spent a fraction of this money on our planning departments, say £1 billion pounds. There are 398 Local Authority Planning Departments in the UK, meaning £2,512,562.81 per Council. Comparing this to our local authority, Royal London Borough of Greenwich’s annual planning department budget of £773,110.00, this is a 325% increase in their annual budget or 64% increase over a 5 year parliamentary period.(6)
Imagine what this investment could achieve.
Clear back log of planning and building control applications.
Provide quicker service for future applications.
Freeze applications fees for the next 5 years.
Free pre-application meetings for house extensions and for sites/areas where development is encouraged.
Early completion of Local and Neighbourhood Plans.
Proactive promotion of development sites.
Greater community engagement.
Attract talented people to return to public planning sector.
More Building Control Inspectors improving safety and standards.
Build more council homes.
The return on investment at a local level could be huge if managed correctly, bringing drive, direction and potential planning talent from around the world to see the UK as a world leader in town planning.
Office for National Statistics - Construction statistics, Great Britain: 2021
Glenigan Construction Review – March 2023
Data from the Insolvency Service - (Government agency)
Housing Delivery Test (HDT) results for 2021 - Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/government-reveals-650bn-construction-pipeline-13-09-2021
https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/downloads/download/1242/budget_2022_to_2023
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