A fee for faster decision making
Barnet Council is looking at introducing a system whereby it will charge higher planning fees if applicants want their applications processed faster. At the moment this is only intended to apply to householder applications but, if successful, this could be expanded to commercial applications as well.
The Council is keen to move away from a one size fits all approach and points out that the practice of charging for additional value added services in the private sector is already well established with people used to making an additional payment to get things quicker or to have additional things included in the service they are seeking.
The proposal has caused concern for some planning professional however, with the head of policy at the RTPI in particular saying “[We] agree that our planning system needs to be properly resourced but creating a system that seems ready made for conflicts of interest and raised expectations among applicants of the success of their proposals is not the way to proceed. These proposals risk creating a two tier planning system where wealthy developers appear to receive preferential treatment ahead of those who cannot or do not wish to pay an extra fee.”
Concerns have also been raised that the proposal could land the Council in hot water, for example, if Barnet create a legal contract with applicants that they will provide a decision in a certain timeframe in exchange for payment. What then happens if the Council is unable to fulfil that contract? Will the applicant be able to sue the Council if the decision is not provided in time? What happens if the decision is a refusal which is then overturned on appeal?
Other Councils will be watching with interest to see how Barnet tackles the potential pitfalls to bring forward their expedited service and how much interest there is from applicants in using it.
