Revamp of planning applications urged in Byers green paper

Sir Stuart Lipton, the Government's architecture tsar, will next month call for a radical shake-up of the planning system to make it faster and more effective in promoting urban regeneration.

The chairman of the Commission of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) is expected to urge Stephen Byers, the Transport and Local Government Secretary, to include the changes in a forthcoming green paper on town and county planning.

It could lead to the biggest overhaul to the planning system since it was established more than 50 years ago.

In a report being prepared for Mr Byers, CABE is understood to say that plans produced by county councils, which map out where development is permitted, should be abolished. The "structure plan" documents are used in determining planning applications, from household extensions to large develop- ments such as offices, shopping centres and industrial schemes.

But structure plans are often bogged down in local politics, sometimes rendering them out of date on the day they are published. This can lead to huge delays in the planning process, among the biggest bugbears of the commercial property industry, which is ruled by economic cycles.

Ian Henderson, chief executive of Land Securities, the UK's largest quoted property company, said: "Businesses are disenfranchised by the planning process. For developers it can be very difficult to time schemes to fit the market. The planning process can be a cycle-buster." He would like to see Mr Byers address the structure planning process as a top priority. "Plans can't be set in aspic," he added. "They must be flexible, able to adapt to change."

The property industry is also urging a new fee structure for planning applications in the green paper. Under the proposal, developers could offer to pay a local planning authority a larger application fee if the money is used to hire planning consultants to help process the application.

Local planners are supposed to process applications within six weeks. But some take years. Mr Henderson said Land Securities has been awaiting a final decision on an application for nearly 10 years, since it was proposed.

The British Property Federation (BPF), that represents property companies and real estate investors, last month met officials at the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions to discuss the idea.

William McKee, director general of the BPF, said: "Most planning departments are grossly under-funded. For large schemes developers could pay, say, £10,000 for applications. The money would be ring-fenced and used to help process the application."

The green paper is also expected to introduce new policies to promote development on urban land and protect the greenbelt.