§ Captain Kerbyasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs (1) if he is aware that delays of four or five months and more elapse between lodging of notices of appeal in town planning approval cases, and the holding of the inquiry by his inspectors, and that there 78W are often delays of two months and more before his decision is received; to what extent these delays are caused by a shortage of inspectors; and what steps he is taking to remedy such delays and expedite housing and other development;
(2) how many of the 500,000 planning and development applications which reach local planning authorities each year come subsequently to his Department on appeal for hearing before his inspectors; and what is the average time lag between notice of appeal, the hearing and his final decision being made public.
§ Mr. RipponIn 1961, 5,607 cases were heard before my right hon. Friend's inspectors. At present, five or six months elapse between the reception of an appeal and the local inquiry. The average period between inquiry and decision is seven to eight weeks. The number of appeals lodged annually, which is well over twice those which actually come to hearing, has nearly doubled over the last five years. The Inspectorate has been very much enlarged—from 88 five years ago to 156 at the present time. Allowing for the fact that there is continuous and unavoidable wastage through retirement on age grounds this has meant a big intake of new men. The position is being closely watched. It is certainly the aim to reduce the time taken to settle appeals, and provided that there is no further significant increase in the number of appeals coming in improvement may be expected as the year goes on. Delays in fixing inquiries are often due to the inability of the parties to agree on a date. My right hon. Friend is considering whether he can bring pressure to bear on the local planning authorities to see that they for their part help in expediting inquiries, but their qualified staff is limited and there is no quick remedy for this.