Chamber backs report calling for planning overhaul

East Midlands Chamber has given its backing to a new report calling for an overhaul of the planning system.

The British Chambers of Commerce report – Planning for Business and Growth – urges further action from ministers with a ‘fundamental reimagining of how planning authorities operate and interact with the business community’.

More planning staff, faster processes and clearer timescales are among the reforms called for in the report.

Fixing the planning system is one of the policy asks in East Midlands Chamber’s recently published Framework for Growth, which sets out how to unlock growth in the region.

Richard Blackmore, the chamber’s director of policy and insight, said: “Sluggish planning decisions are no good for business and a system where housing, industrial or commercial development has to wait for a painfully slow decision to be made is not only frustrating but stalls economic growth.

“Proposals from the Government to shorten consultation periods and delegate routine planning decisions make sense but simply do not go far enough to fix the system and make it fit for purpose, so I welcome the report published by the British Chambers of Commerce and the findings within it, which echo the planning asks we have outlined for the East Midlands.”

To read the British Chambers of Commerce report click here.