Agenda item

To consider a report on the work of the Planning Service for Quarter 4.

The Chair invited officers to introduce the item.

The Assistant Director of Planning, Building Standards, and Sustainability highlighted that the report was split into the following areas: Development Management; Planning Policy; and Building Control. Each officer would introduce their area, taking questions at the end of each section.

The Planning Services update on Development Management was introduced by the Head of Development Management. The following was highlighted:

-       Key Performance Indicators for development management remained stable; the expectation was that the service would remain in the top quartile in all categories.

-       There were challenges for the service as two key staff members had left. This had caused an increase in officer case load from 50 to 73. Two new officers had been recruited.

-       The Planning Authority remains in excess of government thresholds of application performance.

-       In 2021-22, there had been 15 major applications, a decrease from 2020-21 where there had been 20. The average time to process these applications had decreased.

-       The average time to validate an application had decreased from seven to four days.

-       Pre-application meetings had increased meaning that revenue had decreased, as there were fewer larger site applications.

-       Planning Performance Agreements had generated over double the amount of revenue than in the previous year.

-       Revenue had also increased through the introduction of new services such as express householder written advice and a fast-track certificate of lawfulness services.

-       Two recent appeal losses for 2019-21 had taken the Planning Authority over the designation threshold. These two appeals were 300-306 West Green Road and Guildens, Courtenay Avenue. The former was refused by the Planning Sub-Committee with a recommendation for approval. The latter was allowed following a legal challenge to the original inspector’s decision to dismiss the appeal in May 2021. There is one further appeal pending regarding the refusal of the THFC Goods Yard application. The decision would fall within the 2020-22 period.

-       The time taken to register enforcement complaints has increased  due to staff shortages in the customer services team; this was slowly changing as department had recently recruited staff.

-       Officers secured a confiscation order of just over £100,000 against a landlord who had deliberately refused to comply with the requirements of two enforcement notices at two of his properties.

In response to councillor questions, the following answers were provided:

-       Over the lockdown period the service had received a record amount of planning applications. This created an overload that was augmented through some staff departures. The overload of applications was now decreasing, particularly through generating high levels of income which meant that the team would be well resourced.

-       Complaints were to be acknowledged within a day, a visit made within 21 days, and a decision should be made within eight weeks. This month the performance of meeting these targets was at 100%.

-       On applications at a certain threshold the mayor becomes involved in the stage one process. The mayor can also call in a decision at the stage two process. The threshold at which the mayor operates was any building over thirty metres high and contained over 150 residential units, there were other thresholds for commercial buildings, metropolitan open land, and waste.

-       The reason for optimism around case load and achieving targets for dealing with complaints in a timely manner was that a new IT system was being introduced. This would modernise processes through automation, which lessen workload on officers.

-       The new system would allow the monitoring of enforcement to become more visible through various methods of automatic updates.

Planning Policy was introduced by the Interim Head of Planning, Policy, Transport, and Infrastructure. The following was highlighted:

-       Update on timescales for the council’s emerging local plan:

o   The plan was created through resident consultation.

o   After collating responses, a draft Local Plan would be created.

o   This draft Local Plan would then go out to resident consultation by the end of the year.

o   The aim was to submit a new Local Plan, ready for adoption, by 2023

-       Update on the evidence base on the Local Plan:

o   The majority of the key pieces of evidence for the new Local Plan had been completed.

o   A key piece of work underpinning the Local Plan was a characterisation study which officers were doing inhouse. This would be presented to the New Local Plan Member Working Group; this group comprises of members of the Strategic Planning Committee.

-       The new Local Plan would look to reflect the council’s strategic ambitions, containing:

o   Sustainability;

o   Health and wellbeing;

o   Equalities; and

o   They would be looking at areas such as housing to achieve the above ambitions.

-       Update on the Planning and Policy workstreams:

o   NLWP;

o   The Revised Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Charging Schedule;

o   Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill.

In response to councillor questions the following answers were provided:

-       The service did note the mutability in government policy. It was felt that certain government policies would be implemented, others would be watered down, and others would be removed. The service was mindful on expending excessive amounts of resources in responding and planning for government policy.

-       The percentage of the budget that was funded through fees was over 50%.

-       Where consultation was required on specific parts of proposed government planning legislation, the committee’s views would be sought.

Building Control was introduced by the Head of Building Control Services. The following was highlighted:

-       There was a strong recovery after the pandemic, due to an increase in applications.

-       The service was having to deal with work that had reverted to them from private building control companies.

-       225 dangerous structures had been identified this year.

-       Today was the fifth year of Grenfell. Out of that came the Hackett Report. Out of that came the Building Safety Bill, which the Building Safety Act was created. Due to this there were considerable changes going forward. One of which was that it was no longer an option for developers to choose a building controls provider.

-       The service was doing well working from home. They had taken on one apprentice and were looking at taking on a second.

-       Due to legislation the service would have to be registered along with each employee. Due to the service being registered, it would mean it would need to be regularly audited.

-       Building controls had been asked by the Commonwealth Games to be the independent chair for SAG meetings for the forthcoming games in Birmingham.

In response to councillors questions the following answers were provided:

-       Contracts undertaken by private building control companies would revert to the council when these companies could no longer carry out the works they had been contracted to do. There had been an increase in these instances due to issues around insurance arising from Grenfell. When the council took on this type of work, they received a fee. However, this fee was not representative of the work that was required.

-       Due to local government legislation councils were not intended to be profitable, they were only allowed to recover the costs of providing services. Based on annual calculation, the income from charges for a service should not exceed the cost of providing them.

-       The service was undertaking out-of-borough works, particularly in Barnet and Enfield.

RESOLVED

To consider note a report on the work of the Planning Service for Quarter 4.