In March 2019 PAS is carrying out a short survey of planning departments on behalf of MHCLG and the LGA.
Local Government Association (LGA) writes:
This survey is being carried out by PAS on behalf of the LGA and MHCLG. It is a quick snapshot of planning departments and is not an official consultation or audit. No consequences arise from the answers provided and the data will be aggregated.
The survey sets out to understand two things:
- What impact the recent 20% increase of planning application fees has had
- What longer term resourcing pressures remain
The survey will take somewhere between 10 and 30 mins to complete. As a way of saying ‘thank you’ those councils who submit data will receive a report back showing them how they compare to similar authorities in a few key areas like income, discretionary charging and some basic measures of productivity.
Steve Quartermain CBE Chief Planner said ‘The Government wants local planning authorities to have the skills and capacity to deliver high quality plan making and decision taking. I would encourage all local authorities to respond to this important survey so that we can better understand the skills and resources that are required to support their planning service.’ –
We think that these answers are important for the long-term health of planning departments and encourage every planning authority to take part. This includes county councils, national parks and regional planning teams too. If you have any questions or concerns you can contact the PAS lead for this work richard.crawley@local.gov.uk
