National bodies criticise time allocated by DCMS for listed building consultation

Ten national organisations have sharply criticised a Whitehall department over the time allocated for a consultation on changes to the system for listed building consents.

The attack on the Department of Culture, Media & Sport from bodies including the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), the Law Society and the Town and Country Planning Association comes just weeks after new Government guidance was issued calling on departments and their agencies to adopt a “more targeted and proportionate” approach to the consultations they carry out.

In a letter to the DCMS, the various bodies expressed “serious concern” at the four weeks allotted for the consultation and claimed the new guidance had been breached. They called for the closing date for the consultation to be extended beyond 23 August.

The DCMS proposals are intended to simplify the listed building consent system and improve the way buildings at risk are dealt with. (For more details, click here)

The reforms are intended to reduce the circumstances in which listed building consent is required and reduce the level of information applicants are required to submit. The Department claims this will reduce the burden on developers and allow those public agencies which administer the consents “to focus upon the highest risk areas and to deliver a more efficient service”.

The group of ten bodies acknowledged that the Government’s new consultation principles allowed for greater flexibility, but argued that the 30-day period in this case was “particularly unhelpful and ill judged” when:

  • It largely fell in the holiday/Olympics month of August.
  • Parts of the proposals were known to be contentious and a question had already been raised about their legality.
  • English Heritage, in arranging briefing events with stakeholders, had been forced to acknowledge that “we recognise that it may be difficult for representatives to attend these meetings".
  • The result was likely to be counterproductive, “since respondents will have insufficient input from those fully engaged with the subject to fully compose their responses on this vital issue”.

Trudi Elliott, RTPI Chief Executive, said: “We do not believe that the new guidance is being followed properly. There is a responsibility on DCMS to ensure that fair and reasonable consideration is given to timeframes for consultation which should be both proportionate and realistic in order to allow stakeholders sufficient time to provide a considered response. The default response to consultation time scales should not be four weeks or less.”

Philip Hoult