Issue - meetings

To seek Cabinet’s approval of the utilisation of the additional income created from the 20% increase in Planning Fees introduced in January 2018.

RESOLVED that the re-investment of income from the 20% increase in planning fees to support the five targeted areas including service improvements, as set out in item A.4 of the Joint Report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder and the Corporate Enforcement Portfolio Holder, be approved.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a joint report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder and the Corporate Enforcement Portfolio Holder (A.4) which sought its approval of the utilisation of the additional income created from the 20% increase in Planning Fees introduced in January 2018.

Cabinet recalled that, in January 2018, the Housing White Paper entitled “Fixing Our Broken Housing Market” (February 2017) had been introduced. 

Prior to the introduction of the new fee levels, Local Planning Authorities had been invited to commit to re-investing the income from the increase in Planning Fees to the Planning Department.  The report now before Members detailed the proposals for the re-investment of income to support five targeted areas including improvements to the Planning Service, namely:-

·           Section 106 Agreements monitoring and recovery of obligations;

·           Proactive monitoring and enforcement of largescale and strategic developments during build out periods;

·           Planning Enforcement – professional evaluation of reactive enforcement complaints and prioritisation of cases in accordance with the harm assessment policy;

·           GIS Development – progressing regulatory requirements with regard to data transparency and geospatial data; and

·           Enhancing planning staff capacity and skills and other overall improvements to the delivery of the Planning Service (with regard to including e-planning and the office transformation project).

Having considered the information provided in the report:-

It was moved by Councillor Stock OBE, seconded by Councillor Nicholls and:-

RESOLVED that the re-investment of income from the 20% increase in planning fees to support the five targeted areas including service improvements, as set out in item A.4 of the Joint Report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder and the Corporate Enforcement Portfolio Holder, be approved.