23 February 2012

The one millionth planning application has been processed by HM Government's planning resource website, a site that has now delivered savings of approximately £285 million to applicants and councils, Planning Minister Bob Neill announced today.

Nearly 60 per cent of all planning applications in England and Wales are now submitted electronically via the Planning Portal, bringing greater efficiency to the planning process for councils who assess and determine applications, and applicants.

Cutting down the number of paper applications has also saved more than 32 million pieces of paper.

Communities Minister Bob Neill said:

‘We are streamlining the planning system, cutting bureaucracy and simplifying the rules to make the whole planning process much more accessible and efficient for both applicants and councils. An important part of this is ensuring we have a swift, robust application process for all people to use easily.’

A survey by KPMG reported that savings of a minimum of £120 per application were made by submitting online.