Hinckley: Council keeps planning powers after performance turnaround

A council has been told it will not be losing decision-making powers after making significant improvements in planning performance.

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council received a warning letter from the Secretary of State for Housing, Levelling Up and Communities in April.

Performance is measured on how many planning applications were decided within the relevant time limit.

The government said it would continue to monitor the authority's performance.

The council received the letter from Michael Gove following a performance rate of 46.5% between October 2020 and September 2022 against a target of 70%.

The council should make decisions on applications for minor developments within eight weeks or 13 weeks for major developments.

Performance is also measured on the quality of the decision.

The council previously said its performance had been marked down due to the speed at which it made decisions on minor applications.

It said this was due to the impacts of the Covid pandemic, planning staff shortages and recruitment issues.

The authority was given until June to make changes or the government said it would "designate" the authority, meaning it would no longer have the power to approve or reject applications or impose conditions.

The most recent letter from the government, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, stated the council's performance between April and June had increased to 90%.

Rachel Maclean, the minister of state for housing and planning, said she was pleased with the improvements.

"Due to the improvement over recent quarters I am minded not to designate your authority for poor performance at this time," she said.

"However, I will continue to closely monitor the authority's performance."

The MP Dr Luke Evans has congratulated the council for the turnaround.

He said: "I've written to the civil servants in the planning department to congratulate them.

"They have worked so hard to turn this around and deserve credit for doing so."

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