Senior Treasury minister John Healey has accused local council planners of behaving unilaterally and ignoring their authorities’ wider goals.

Speaking at an RICS debate, the financial secretary said:

“It’s a characteristic of planning departments that they have operated a unilateral declaration of independence”, before adding that planners did not have “proper aspirations” about economic development and regeneration.

Healey continued: “But where you have got a strong council leadership you find that planning can have a stronger policy base.”

Healey’s comments shed light on the depth of scepticism within the Treasury about the planning system.

Planning can have a stronger policy base

John Healey, financial secretary

London mayor Ken Livingstone said at the same event that he wanted to see London local authority planning reorganised into five departments, rather than the existing 32 boroughs, to enable planners to become more skilled in dealing with developers.

He said: “We need five planning authorities rather than 32. You can’t take people dealing with back extensions for five or six years and then expect them to get on top of the most rapacious bastards on the planet employing the sharpest lawyers that money can buy.”

At a separate event organised by the Campaign for More Better Homes, CBI director Sir Digby Jones said: “The planning regime in the UK is out of step with our place as the world’s fourth largest economy. It must be changed to serve people’s needs for the 21st century.”