Planning Applications (Hansard, 2 May 1991)

§ Mr. Gorst
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proportion of local authority planning refusals have been overruled by an inspector in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
276W

§ Sir George Young
In the 12-month period ending February 1991, 32.3 per cent of appeals to the Secretary of State, following a local authority decision to refuse a planning application, were allowed.

§ Mr. Gorst
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has any plans to afford the same rights to those who object to a planning application as apply to property developers when an appeal by the developers is made to him following refusal of planning consent by a local authority.

§ Sir George Young
My right hon. Friend is required by statute to take into account any representations about planning appeals made to him by third parties, so long as they are relevant to the case, regardless of the procedure followed. Although most third parties appear at a public local inquiry only at the inspector's discretion, inspectors are instructed not to refuse to hear such parties without good reason, particularly if the result of the inquiry could adversely affect their interests.

§ Mr. Gorst
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he has any plans to compensate local authorities for the money they spend to defend their planning decisions;
(2) what steps he takes to ensure that the amount of money spent by local authorities to defend their decisions is justified and reasonable; and if he will give figures for the amount spent by each local authority for 1988, 1989 and 1990.

§ Sir George Young
It is for local authorities to decide how much to spend on defending their planning decisions at appeal. Information is not available about the amount spent by each authority in the last three years. Fees for planning applications are set to recover about 50 per cent. of authorities' development control costs, which include costs incurred at appeal, and those fees are being raised progressively with the aim of covering 100 per cent. of development control costs. Where unreasonable behaviour by another party at a public local inquiry results in unnecessary expense to a local planning authority my right hon. Friend may award costs to the authority. Fifty-four such awards were made in 1989–90.