Rosewell Review suggests planning reforms to speed up new home developments

The most contentious planning cases could be decided up to 5 months faster, a major review has found.

The Rosewell Review, part of the government’s programme of reforms to deliver 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s, concluded that outdated administrative processes and poor IT infrastructure were unnecessarily holding up cases.

The report also suggested that a lack of suitably qualified inspectors was also hampering efforts to set up inquiry hearings on time.

The report made 22 recommendations, which range from committing the Planning Inspectorate to introducing a new online portal for the submission of inquiry appeals to setting out a strategy for recruiting additional inspectors so inquiries can be scheduled sooner, reducing the length of time they take to conclude.

Bridget Rosewell CBE stated: "It’s critical that all parts of the planning system contribute towards the efficient delivery of the homes we need as well as the refusal of those which don’t meet our high standards.

"My review found, with commitment for all involved, that speeding up inquiries can be achieved through straightforward reforms, shaving months off the current time it takes for inspectors to make a decision."

Approximately 30,000 new homes were granted permission by the Planning Inspectorate through the appeals process last year. The Planning Inspectorate will now prepare an implementation plan which will set out precisely how it will deliver these recommendations.