Government proposals to raise planning application fees in England from April 2025 will not deliver the intended boost to local authority planning budgets.
That’s according to the Mineral Products Association (MPA) which has repeated its call for the extra income from the increased fees to be ‘ring-fenced’ to enable investment and improvement in desperately under-funded planning departments.
An efficient planning system is vital for economic growth and the Government claims the latest fee increase – presented to Parliament last week – will bring an extra £50 million a year into local planning authorities to provide a quicker, better service.
But MPA is among the leading voices to express frustration that the Government has ignored recommendations to ring-fence the money from planning application fees, so it will inevitably be used to prop up other areas of local government facing shortfalls.
Mark Russell, MPA Executive Director for Environment and Mineral Planning, said:
“The suggestion from MHCLG that raising planning fees will enable local authorities to provide a quicker, better service is naïve and completely ignores the fact that there is no guarantee this income will be invested in planning services.
“Given the funding challenges and statutory obligations on local authorities, without safeguarding the money for planning departments, we have zero confidence that there will be any noticeable improvement from the fee increases, with the additional income simply being used to offset council budget deficits elsewhere.
“There is widespread agreement, even in Government, that planning teams need investment in capacity and skills to deliver the quality and speed of service the mineral products industry relies on. Without planning consent to extract, produce and transport construction materials, Government ambitions for housing and infrastructure could be restricted.
“Planning bureaucracy is often cited as a key barrier to investment and growth, so this is a missed opportunity that doesn’t just create a problem for our industry but for UK construction and manufacturing, and the UK economy as a whole.”
ENDS
About the Mineral Products Association:
The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and industrial sand industries. With the merger of British Precast, and affiliation of the British Association of Reinforcement (BAR), the British Calcium Carbonate Federation, the Cement Admixtures Association (CAA), CONSTRUCT, Eurobitume, MPA Northern Ireland, MPA Scotland and the UK Quality Ash Association (UKQAA), it has a growing membership of more than 500 companies and is the sectoral voice for mineral products. MPA membership is made up of the vast majority of independent SME quarrying companies throughout the UK, as well as the 9 major international and global companies. It covers 100% of UK cement and lime production, 90% of GB aggregates production, 95% of asphalt and over 70% of ready-mixed concrete and precast concrete production. In 2021, the industry supplied £22 billion worth of materials and services to the Economy. It is also the largest supplier to the construction industry, which had annual output valued at £178 billion. Industry production represents the largest materials flow in the UK economy and is also one of the largest manufacturing sectors.
For media enquiries, contact Robert McIlveen at: Robert.McIlveen@mineralproducts.org