The British Property Foundation (BPF) has said the UK Government is "moving in the right direction" to address problems within council planning departments.

Secretary of State Greg Clark MP announced yesterday, 08 February, he will consult on allowing well-performing planning departments to increase their planning fees in line with inflation.

Melanie Leech, chief executive of the BPF, said that Mr Clark's announcement is proof that the Government is "listening to the concerns of both the public and private sectors."

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"The lack of skills and resources within local authority planning departments is a chronic problem," she said.

"Allowing well-performing authorities to make inflationary increases to their fees, however, is unlikely to make a huge amount of difference in practice.

"Coupled with the announcement a few weeks ago that will allow local authorities to outsource the processing of planning applications, this is a step in the right direction and wit is good that the Government is listening to the concerns of both the public and private sectors.

"A more decisive move is needed if we are to properly tackle this problem once and for all."

(LM)