CPRE publishes new briefing on value of local planning committees

The Planning & Infrastructure Bill is set to curb the role of local planning committees and place new limits on local democracy.

A new briefing published by CPRE sets out how government proposals to limit local planning committees will harm democratic oversight without addressing the real causes of the housing crisis.

Local planning committees comprise elected representatives, consider planning applications with the greatest potential impact, and give communities a right to speak on decisions that could make significant changes to their local area. CPRE’s research shows that only 4% of planning applications are considered by a committee, with the rest decided by a single unelected planning officer.

Restricting the role of local planning committees will not fix the housing crisis. The real problem is the big housebuilders that together are hoarding planning permission for more than a million unbuilt new homes, slowly releasing unaffordable properties on to the market to maximise their profits.

Our briefing warns that allowing more planning applications to be decided by planning officers alone could make it easier for developers to abandon their commitments to build high-quality and affordable homes.

The briefing highlights the successful model adopted by Shropshire Council, which delegated 97% of applications to officers in 2024 while exceeding government targets on decision speed and approval rates.

CPRE is urging the government to maintain planning committees’ role in locally significant cases, hold big developers to account and establish ambitious and enforceable targets for genuinely affordable homes on the UK’s plentiful supply of shovel-ready brownfield sites.