Taxpayers Pick Up Record Cost of UK's Broken Planning System
Britain’s homebuilding approval process is failing to cope with a surge in local protectionism that’s driving more costs to the taxpayer
A public inquiry poster relating to a planning application for development of The Station Shopping Park site in Reading, UK, on April 24.
Photographer: Carlos Jasso/BloombergBritish taxpayers are paying more and more for a planning system buckling under the strain of years of underfunding and increasingly strident NIMBYism.
Freedom of Information requests by Bloomberg show taxpayers are paying the most on record to cover the costs of developers successfully appealing planning applications turned down by local authorities. The share of rejected applications ultimately overturned rose to more than 30% last year, the highest proportion in at least 10 years, the data show.