Consultations for building set to be scrapped under proposed changes

Parts of the planning system could be stripped away by the government in its attempts to speed up house building.

Consulting bodies like Sports England, the Theatres Trust and the Garden History Society will no longer be required for those looking to build under the new plans being considered by ministers.

It is hoped a reduction in statutory consultees will reduce the waiting times for projects.

Angela Rayner, who is both deputy prime minister and housing secretary, said: "We've put growth at the heart of our plans as a government, with our Plan for Change milestone to secure 1.5 million homes and unleash Britain's potential to build.

"We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays - putting a hold on people's lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need.

"New developments must still meet our high expectations to create the homes, facilities and infrastructure that communities need."

Consultees will not be completely excised from the planning process under the changes.

However, instead of it being mandatory to get the opinion of such bodies, their scope will be "narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environmental protection", according to the government.

The government says it has identified issues like consultees failing to engage "proactively", taking too long to provide advice, re-opening issues that have already been dealt with, submitting automatic objections which they later withdraw, and submitting advice for "gold-plated" outcomes that are unrealistic and difficult to achieve.

More than 300 planning applications have been sent up to the secretary of state's desk in the past three years because of disagreements.

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The government has highlighted examples like a project to construct 140 homes in Bradford that was delayed because the application had "not adequately considered the speed of cricket balls".

As well as reducing the number of consultees that have to be brought in, local authorities will also be told they only need to speak to the bodies if necessary, and decisions should not be held up by more than 21 days.

The government states that "existing open spaces, sports, recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, should not be built on unless an assessment has shown the space to be surplus to requirements or it will be replaced by equivalent or better provision".

Sport England said its remit in the planning system is to protect playing fields and other spaces for physical activity.

"Britain's childhood obesity crisis is rising and low physical activity levels cost our economy £7.4bn a year, making it vital we protect the places that local communities can be active," a spokesperson said.

They added they "look forward" to taking part in the consultation exercise and "arguing the importance of protecting playing fields and places where local people can keep active".

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Sam Richards, CEO of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade and former Conservative adviser said: "I'm glad the deputy prime minister has taken on board many of the recommendations I made in my review of statutory consultees for the last government.

"It's a step in the right direction - but there's still more they can do. For example, they've not introduced a 'use it or lose it' approach to objections. This would remove the chance of statutory consults to intervene after they miss their deadline.

"There is also some irony in the fact that their decision to remove consultees from the process…has been put out to consultation."

(c) Sky News 2025: Consultations for building set to be scrapped under proposed changes