Government could step in to take over and speed up planning decisions at Portsmouth City Council

Last month, the Department of Levelling Up wrote to the council – and almost 20 other local authorities – warning that it could be ‘designated’, allowing planning applications to be submitted to the planning inspectorate rather than the council.

The letter was written based on the council’s failure to hit the government target of deciding 70 per cent of non-major applications within time, with figures showing it managed 63.2 per cent between September 2020 and September 2022.

The long-running issue of applications waiting for decisions in the city has been the subject of a series of measures to reduce its size, including the failed appointment of private company Terraquest and a two-week ‘decision delivery drive’ during which planners focused solely on older plans.

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Policy changes have also been introduced to reduce the number of applications requiring a decision by the planning committee which is also meeting more frequently than normal. The backlog peaked at more than 300 applications a year ago and stood at about 200 in December.

Nitrate mitigation measures, the pandemic and staffing shortages have all been blamed for the delays in reaching decisions over the last few years.

The council’s head of development management, three principal planning officers and three senior planning officers have all left over the last two years, exacerbating the problem while efforts to replace them have been ‘largely unsuccessful’, the council said.

Despite these issues, the council has written to the government urging it not to designate it amid fears it will reduce local say in development in the city.

It said expected progress on its new local plan this year would add further support to planning policies, allowing decisions to be reached more quickly.

‘Portsmouth City Council recognise and acknowledge – despite notable improvements in median determination times and significant reduction in the backlog of cases open within the service – that improvement is needed in respect of the speed of determination of planning applications,’ the letter sent by chief planner Ian Maguire said.

‘However, the council consider that it is unreasonable and unnecessary to consider designation at this time due to its past underperformance.’

He added that ‘ongoing work to create and embed service improvement and secure staff to deliver good performance means designation is unnecessary’ while the pandemic and nitrates issues were one-offs, making such a move ‘unreasonable at this time.’