The government publishes its response to the consultation (which ran until 23/07/2025) relating to planning committees …

[UPDATE: For a subsequent further consultation, please view this post.]

The government has published the following response to the consultation titled "Reform of planning committees - technical consultation" (which ran for 8 weeks from 28/05/2025 until 23/07/2025):

Response document:

  • March 2026: Reform of planning committees - technical consultation - government response (link) (pdf print version of HTML webpage).

Notes:

  • The "Introduction" at the start of the above response document includes the following information:
    - "Our Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 has introduced measures to modernise committees through the control of the size and composition of planning committees, to introduce a scheme of delegation to control which applications go to committees and which to officers, and to mandate training for committee members. Our technical consultation which ran from May to July 2025 sought views on the proposals to implement these measures.".
    - "This document provides a summary of the views received in response to the consultation proposals and sets out the government’s next steps.".
  • The "Next steps" at the end of the above response document includes the following information:
    - "The government has prepared draft regulations setting out the detailed arrangements for the national scheme of delegation. Alongside this, we have prepared draft statutory guidance to support local authorities in implementing the regulations. The draft regulations and guidance have been published alongside this government response and are the subject of a public consultation.".

Other sources of information:

  • December 2024: Government press release - "Major overhaul of planning committees to get Britain building" (link).
  • December 2024: Planning Reform Working Paper - Planning Committees (pdf) (link).
    - Note: For more information about the above document, please view this post.
  • May 2025: Government press release - "Government backs SME builders to get Britain building" (link).
  • May 2025: Reform of planning committees - technical consultation (link) (pdf print version of HTML webpage).
    - Note: For more information about the above document, please view this post.