Developers and local authorities are being offered a new service to access land use planning information and advice from today (28 July).

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is launching the service to cut the amount of red tape involved in the planning process, which should help business take advantage of commercial opportunities and will aid the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of local authorities.

The new service will be fully rolled out in March 2015. HSE's Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) will take on an increased role in delivering advice on planning applications.

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The service is designed to support early and positive engagement using an enhanced pre-application service. Developers and others will gain increased access to HSE's assessment tools and techniques, meaning that the whole process will be faster and simpler.

Peter Brown, Head of HSE's Hazardous Installations Policy Division, said: "The advisory service is being planned and designed around what users need.

"Discussions with developers and other parties involved in the planning process have indicated that being able to find out more detail about a piece of land in advance of purchase helps to quicken the development process and can also save significant costs.

"By enabling easier and more transparent access to HSE's Land Use Planning advice, developers and planners will be able to get quick or even immediate answers to queries related to a plot of land they may be interested in purchasing or developing."

(CD/JP)