In 2009/2010 a staggering 82,500 planning applications were refused or withdrawn, and the year before this figure was even higher at 102,000. Let’s not forget that for much of this period the UK was in a recession, and yet these economy boosting developments were being knocked back.
I thought it would be interesting to guestimate the total value of these refused developments. The annual output for all construction agencies in 2008 and 2009 was £230 billion, so using this as a base the refusals over the last two years could have lost the economy up to £39.1 billion.
I’m sure my ‘back of the envelope’ analysis wouldn’t stand up to rigorous analysis, for a start not all planning permissions are implemented, but nevertheless the planning system appears to be stifling significant possible investment, at a time when we should be trying to encourage development.
On a lighter note, this seems like a very good time to mention our own 2009/2010 success rate – we managed to secure permissions for 90.1% of all our planning applications. We’re very proud of this and would like to thank all our planners that have helped us along the way – doing their bit to help reduce the UK deficit!