I thank both noble Lords for these amendments, which, as I have said, open up the discussions on the criteria and the means of designation.
The noble Lord, Lord Tope, has said that with designation we should be incentivising and not punishing. From the outset, I want to make it clear that that is precisely what we are trying to do. While we designate because of a performance, we are trying to ensure that that performance improves. If this is an incentive to do that, that is precisely what we are trying to do.
How the designation process will work is very important. As a matter of course, we are consulting on it. I think that it would be helpful if I begin by giving noble Lords an indication of what people have said and how we intend to respond. The consultation closed on 17 January and, as noble Lords have said, there were 227 responses, many of them from planning authorities. There were, inevitably some differences of view and, having looked carefully at the responses, we are in a position to confirm how we plan to move forward on some of the key elements of the proposals. We will of course publish a full response to the consultation in due course, once the primary powers to be implemented have been finalised.
In the light of the consultation we have concluded that the speed and quality of decisions on planning applications are the most appropriate basis for assessing the performance of local planning authorities for the purpose of implementing this clause. The basis refers to the specific thresholds where, as the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, rightly said, 20% were lost on appeal and 30% assessed on speed or lack of it—applying, in other words, to authorities that have had 20% or more of their major decisions overturned at appeal, or that have decided 30% or fewer of their major applications within the statutory period.
It bears repeating that these are very low thresholds. The intention behind them is to create a safeguard that encourages—or incentivises—good performance rather than to see a lot of designations. We remain of the view that designations should be a last resort and that these thresholds are in line with that objective. We will keep them under review—that is our starting point and firm intention. Through the amendments that we have made to Clause 1, Parliament will have the opportunity to consider the criteria before they are finalised.
There was considerable support for our proposal to allow extensions of time agreed between the local authority and the developer to be dealt with separately from the performance figures that we currently collect. This was one of the points addressed by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie; where over time there are difficulties, as long as there is agreement with the developer for an extension of that time for whatever reason, that will not become part of the decision-making relating to the designation. These performance figures are part of promoting a simpler, more proportionate approach to planning performance agreements. We will reflect this as quickly as possible in the data that we collect. We also intend to proceed with our suggestion that any authorities that fall below the performance thresholds are considered for designation and dedesignation on an annual basis.
In line with this we have been giving particular thought to how we can put in place a cycle of support for authorities that are at risk of designation and have
actually been designated. This is important for two reasons. First, by providing early support we very much hope that we can help any authorities that may be struggling to improve sufficiently and so avoid designation. Secondly, for authorities that have been designated we will want to make sure that they can get out of it as quickly as they can and that, if possible, designation can be lifted at the end of a first year.
In the light of the consultation responses, our position is that decisions about dedesignation should be guided primarily by an assessment of what the authority has done to address the reasons for underperformance, and its capacity and capability to deal effectively with major applications. This will mean reviewing at the time of designation what the authority needs to do to reach a satisfactory level of performance and to ensure that it can access whatever help may be required. To provide that support we have been having helpful discussions with the Local Government Association about the way that it can best be provided to those local authorities. We agree with the LGA that this is appropriately done by support from the sector, and that it has a vital role to play in driving improvement in planning services and addressing poor performances where they exist. Giving local government the responsibility to manage its performance is a principle we are committed to and have supported through our funding of the Planning Advisory Service.
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An effective package of sector-led support will be crucial to ensuring that councils avoid designation and move out of designation as quickly as possible. Close sector involvement in the development of that support is essential to ensure that it is intelligence-led and responsive to the needs of each individual council. We have therefore agreed with the Local Government Association that we will develop new arrangements for the governance of the Planning Advisory Service that will give local government a clearer leadership role in developing a vigorous and effective package of support. Through this, we will together ensure that this programme delivers the support necessary to avoid designations, and that it is responsive to authorities’ needs. I hope with that noble Lords will understand that we really want to see local authorities improving and that the Local Government Association will provide help, direction and peer guidance to enable that to happen.
I turn to Amendments 2 and 15. We will make sure that an authority has sufficient advance notice of any designation, but that is not something that needs to be in the Bill. As the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, rightly said, it will be very apparent to local authorities which authorities are liable for designation as soon as the relevant statistics become available. Of course, some of those statistics are already in place, because they are issued quarterly, and that has been going on for some time. So it is perfectly possible and transparent for local authorities to be looking at those now.
In practical terms, we are going to go much further. Each year, we will identify those authorities that are at risk of designation in the following year if their performance fails to recover. Tailored, sector-led support will then be offered to those authorities to give them
maximum opportunity to improve. So they will not only have advance warning that they are at risk, but the opportunity to address that situation. That is a key part of the discussions that we have been having with the Local Government Association, and we are also exploring what we need to do to identify and provide support to authorities that are struggling now, before any initial designations are made.
It remains our intention to make any initial designations in October this year, once the necessary secondary legislation is in place. We are considering the most appropriate period over which to assess performance for those first designations. That is one of the points raised, and we need to come to a decision about it. We are considering the most appropriate period for that, so that the data which are taken into account are as up to date as possible and reflect efforts by authorities to improve their performance since this measure was announced in September last year. In line with that objective, we will bring forward the release of planning statistics for the period from April to June this year so that this information can be taken into account in assessing performance for those first designations. This will give authorities more opportunity to improve their average performance before any decisions are taken. We have also made it clear that we will give any authorities proposed for designation an opportunity to correct any errors. The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked me about what they will be able to do. They will be able to correct errors in the data or explain if they present a misleading picture, but there are limits; we cannot have a subjective process of special pleading which would be neither fair nor transparent. So authorities that may be designated will be given an opportunity to tell us if the data are, for some reason, not representative of their true performance, but we are not going to go any further than that.
While I cannot support the specific proposals in Amendments 2 and 15, I hope that from what I have said noble Lords will understand the extent to which we are putting in place a system that will result in designations only as a last resort and only after authorities have been given support to improve and, one hopes, to avoid a designation occurring. I hope, with that, that noble Lords will be satisfied with my replies and that the noble Lord, Lord Tope, will withdraw his amendment.