Councils in England have spent an estimated £4.5bn less on planning since 2010 than they would have if spending had remained at its 2009/10 level after inflation, new analysis suggests.
Land Value Calculator calculates that local authorities spent £1.36bn on planning in 2025/26, around 15% less in real terms than in 2009/10.
The analysis comes as the Government pursues its ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes, which would require a substantial increase in residential planning activity.
The biggest reduction identified is in planning policy – including the work required to produce local plans determining where development should take place – where spending is calculated to be 28% below its 2009/10 level after inflation.
LOCAL PLANS
Spending on processing planning applications is estimated to be 8% lower in real terms.
Fewer than a third of planning authorities currently have an up-to-date local plan, according to Government figures cited in the analysis.
Land Value Calculator says restoring planning-policy spending to its inflation-adjusted 2009/10 level would require around £160m a year, although it stresses this is a benchmark rather than an estimate of the funding councils actually need.
A spokesperson for Land Value Calculator says: “The Government wants 1.5 million homes, yet fewer than a third of planning authorities have an up-to-date local plan setting out where development should go.
“Developers are being asked to pay most of the cost of processing applications. The plans themselves still depend on council budgets and grants.”
PLANNING FEES
The Government plans to increase planning fees in December with the aim of developers covering around 90% of the cost of processing applications.
However, income from application fees cannot be used to fund other planning functions such as preparing local plans.
The Royal Town Planning Institute has called for planning-policy investment to be restored to at least 2010 levels.
The £4.5bn figure represents the cumulative difference between actual council planning expenditure since 2010/11 and what would have been spent had the 2009/10 level increased with inflation. It does not represent funding previously allocated to councils or money they are owed.
Land Value Calculator also says that most of the decline occurred during the first four years of the period and spending has subsequently recovered to some extent.
Overall planning applications are also 33% lower than in 2009/10.
