London boroughs axe 26 planners amid spending cuts
By Helen Roxburgh - Wednesday, August 31, 2011 14:35
More than 25 planning officials have been made redundant in central London boroughs as local councils cut budgets in line with government’s deepening spending cuts.
CoStar News can reveal that Westminster council has reduced its planning department by making 12 members redundant, and Camden council has confirmed that it has also made a dozen redundancies in its planning team.
In addition, Ealing council has made two redundancies in the borough’s planning team following a restructuring in May.
At Camden, six of the redundancies were compulsory, while six were voluntary. At Westminster, six of the roles were official redundancies, while another six posts are being held vacant for the immediate future.
Cllr Robert Davis, Westminster’s cabinet member for the built environment, said that the council was waiting for the department of Communities and Local Government to confirm its position in the autumn over planning fee regulations before reviewing the number of staff in the planning teams further.
It had been hoped that proposed changes to allow local authorities to set their own levels of planning application fees would allow them to recover some of the reduced funds, and prevent the need to make redundancies.
Earlier in the year, Westminster Council warned that more than 30 planning staff were facing redundancies if the government did not hurry through the changes proposed in Parliament to allow local authorities to increase the planning charges they apply for planning applications.
The council had estimated that it needs an extra £1.3m to be raised in the 2011/2012 financial year to support the borough's planning service.
At Camden, the local authority was forced to identify cuts of £86m by the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review.
A Camden council spokesperson told CoStar News: “We have reviewed the large majority of our services to consider how savings can be made whilst minimising the impact on frontline services.
“As part of this, we have reviewed our planning functions in the previous 12 months. The council has reconsidered the planning services that we offer to residents and focused on providing a level of service which meets the requirements of our customers and on the parts of the service which are most important to achieving the council’s objectives and statutory obligations.
“As part of this review there has been a total of 12 redundancies across the service, six of which were voluntary and six of which were compulsory.”
The council warned however that although it thought the government proposals to allow local authorities to set their own charges and make greater cost recovery was "welcome", it did not anticipate they would lead to “additional employment opportunities.”
In the development industry, however, there are concerns that the cuts will impact on an already overstretched system, and slow down the process at a time when the government is aiming to incentivise growth.
There are also fears that changing the planning fees system in the future will add to the financial burden on developers at a time when planning teams are being reduced.
Liz Peace, chief executive of the BPF, said: “The property industry accepts that it is appropriate for planning fees to cover the costs of planning. A well-resourced planning system will be vital if it is to become the ‘engine of growth’ that government intends.
“However, developers must receive value for money for the service they receive. Decisions should be made quickly and fairly, and any new fee structure must be proportionate to the true costs incurred by planning authorities.
“Councils must also ensure that this is not seen as a green light to recoup any shortfall in their development control budgets by increasing fees, rather than looking at how they can reduce their costs and operate more efficiently.”
Keith Hearn, senior director of planning at CB Richard Ellis, said: “I think the development industry will be very disappointed at the prospect of losing a significant number of posts at a very well run planning service.
"The frustration comes for the market over the reluctance of government in clarifying the issue of charging for planning applications. It seems now as though any changes might not be introduced until the start of the next financial year.
"The view of those developers who are investing in major schemes is generally that they are prepared to pay more for an efficient planning service. The fees are not an insignificant amount of money, but a modest increase on a major development which will guarantee a better service is not an unreasonable proposal."
Manchester council made a range of cuts to its planning department earlier in the year, with Peter Babb, the head of planning, among those taking early retirement or voluntary redundancy.
At the weekend, fifteen leading property CEOs and fund management heads sent a letter to prime minister David Cameron to express concerns at the growing delays in the reforms to the planning system
hroxburgh@costar.co.uk