Meeting of the Parliament 12 November 2024
Wow. In asking us to speed up the process, Meghan Gallacher asks us to bring forward more legislation, which would take years and would not add anything to the legislation that we already have.
She complained about rises in fees, but if she spent any time at all talking to those in the sector, she would understand that the sector is very comfortable with paying more fees, provided that the money goes into increasing capacity in the planning system.
She ridiculed the idea of a hub, but if she spent any time talking to those in the sector, she would know that the first ask is for a hub to be set up to help accelerate planning applications through the system.
Right across the piece, Megan Gallacher is absolutely wide of the mark, and has clearly spent no time at all talking to those in the sector or looking at any of the 23 actions in the delivery plan that was published today, which includes actions to speed up the process and make it more efficient; the master plan consent areas that are in the legislation; the fact that we are accelerating work to treble the number of young people coming through the bursary route into the system; or the many other actions that we are taking.
We are serious about the role that planning can take in tackling the housing emergency, but Megan Gallacher should also recognise that the data published by the Competition and Markets Authority shows that, on average, 29,000 homes a year have been given planning permission during the past few years, which is far in excess of the asks of the sector. That land is there to be built out already, with planning permission.