The Snagging List II
50 Shades of Planning
Planner empowerment to hold the planning balance
Ben and Ros stress planners must be empowered to make pragmatic trade-offs in the planning balance for delivery.
Empirical evidence is starting to emerge, as speculated upon earlier in the year, that there will indeed be a significant increase in the number of planning applications being submitted this year, certainly for residential development and largely, it is held, driven by the introduction of Grey Belt. TerraQuest, the company behind the Planning Portal, has reported that the number of new homes for which planning permission was sought between 1 July and 30 September 2025 was 68% higher than during the same period in 2024.
As Sam Stafford said in the introduction to the first Snagging List episode, if this increase in planning applications is to make a meaningful contribution to the Government's new home target within the parliamentary term, then these applications will need to be transacted an awful lot faster than applications have been transacted hitherto.
According to research by Lichfields for the LPDF and Richborough, the average time taken to determine a major outline application has risen from 8 months in 2014 to two years in 2024.
That first Snagging List episode focused on the application process, from pre-app, determination and committees to conditions and Section 106 Agreements. That of course though is only a part of the development process and it was suggested during that recording that the post-consent delays to getting permissions implemented warrant an episode in their own right and so this is that follow-up episode.
According to Lichfields’ third ‘Start to Finish’ report, published in 2024, on sites of more than 500 homes it takes an average of between 1.3 and 1.6 years from detailed consent to first completion. For sites of between 50 and 99 homes that period is an average of 2.3 years, and for sites of between 100 and 499 homes that period is 3.2 years.
What are the factors that cause the delay between a LPA issuing a decision notice and JCBs starting work on site, and what can be done about them?
These are the questions that are discussed by old friends of the podcast Andrew Taylor, Emma Williamson and Ros Eastman (who contributed to the first Snagging List episode), and new friends of the podcast Mat Capper, Jonathan Gimblett and Ben Phillips.
In a conversation recorded online in November 2025, they talk about all of the other consenting regimes that need navigating, such as waste water, highways and utilities; they talk about the need for LPAs to be able to replicate a developer’s delivery team approach; and they offer some 'top tips', which are especially timely in the context of the Government’s proposed reforms to the statutory consultee system, which emerged shortly before this episode was published.
Some accompanying reading.
Reforms to the statutory consultee system
How long is a piece of string?
Simplifying & Standardising Section 106 Agreement Processes: Proposals for Reform
Some accompanying listening.
Jane Weaver – I Need A Connection
Any other business.
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here.
Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.
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