BOOMING HOUSEBUILDERS RUN UP AGAINST A PLANNING WALL

HOUSEBUILDERS should be delighted. A number of them have turned in fabulous profit figures and trading conditions are buoyant.

But for some of the companies, the gloss is being taken off the current trading picture by what is becoming a rude word - planning. Amid the celebration of good results, Britain's second-largest housebuil-der, Barratt Developments, and the third-biggest, Beazer Group, last week expressed dissatisfaction about the lack of speed involved in planning procedures and approval of developments.

Barratt talked about the "breakdown" of the planning system while Beazer urged Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to hurry up an intended review of planning procedures. Both warned of inflationary pressures if the planning process could not be speeded up. The Housebuilders Federation sees the frustration builders feel when they have to go through a long and tortuous planning process - perhaps to see the proposal turned down. Spokesman Mark Cran-field-Adams, while stressing that builders do not want to see consultation or individuals' rights to protest against developments curtailed, sees no reason why a deadline of three months cannot be set for approvals. He says that at the moment they can take from six to 18 months. The Government has said it will modernise the planning system. Minister of State for the Regions, Regeneration and Planning, Richard Caborn, said the principles of the system put in place after the Second World War would be retained, but would address a "number of missing dimensions". Caborn also intends to improve the way local authorities deliver their Local Plans and Unitary Development Plans. The Local Plans are a crucial issue, as local authorities can use their absence to delay projects. Caborn said the previous Government had agreed a target date with local authorities for substantial coverage of Local Plans by the end of 1996. "Only 43% coverage was achieved by that date," he said. This figure is expected to be about 70% by the end of this year, but the Government is proposing changes to national policy guidance on the issue, with the revised guidelines drawing attention to the scope for authorities to learn from the best practice of others. Many authorities are improving the speed at which they process planning applications. In the 12 months to the end of September, 32 local authorities had shortened the time taken to reach planning decisions. However, the overall percentage of decisions made within the targeted period of eight weeks has been either static or slightly declining in recent years. Industry players remain sceptical about how much difference the Government can make to planning approval times. But in the meantime, as last week showed, they are unlikely to remain quiet about the issue.

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