Planning system grinding to a halt as delays rise

Britain’s planning system is grinding to a halt with more than 500,000 developments delayed over the past five years. According to official figures, four out of five big applications are now being delayed by up to two years. Only 19% of applications were processed in 13 weeks over the past year, down from 57% 10 years ago. Separate analysis by the Royal Town Planning Institute shows that the funding of planning offices fell by 55% in real terms, from £1.07bn to £480m, between 2010 and 2021. Only one in 10 local authority planning departments is fully staffed. The Times (£)