Redrow wants planning reforms

The Government must make the existing planning system work if the UK is to provide enough homes for the population, Redrow, one of Britain's leading housebuilders, warned yesterday.

On Monday, the Government is expected to announce a programme to reform the planning system. After years of unsuccessful lobbying by the housebuilding industry over the slowness of the planning process, the issue has finally caught the attention of the Treasury, which fears that under-supply of housing is a serious impediment to economic growth, especially in the South-east.

Paul Pedley, Redrow's chief executive, said, however, that a wholesale re-writing of the planning rules would take years and was not necessary. "They need to oil the wheels of the existing system. The planning system today needs help. We cannot wait three or four years," Mr Pedley said, as Redrow delivered a trading update.

In particular, two aspects of planning slowed the system down and needed to be addressed, he said. Firstly, Section 106 agreements, known as planning gain, which allow planning permission to be granted in return for a developer contributing to an area's infrastructure, such as help in building a nearby road or school. These get held up while awaiting formal legal approval from a council. Secondly, when planning applications get called in by the Secretary of State for central government scrutiny. It takes too long to process these two stages, he said.

"If these two areas were addressed, it would have a marked impact," Mr Pedley said. He said that human resources were needed to speed up these stages in the application process.

In the trading update, Redrow, said the housing market had cooled down over the summer, after a strong spring, suggesting fears of run-away rises in prices were misplaced.