Planning expert Sam Dewar is calling on the Chancellor to provide more money in his budget to strengthen local authority planning to drive growth in the housing sector.

Sam Dewar, a director and planning manager at Yorkshire-based DPA Planning Ltd, wants to see a ‘planning friendly’ Budget.

He worries about cuts to local authority funding and is calling for a Budget that secures more stability in the housing sector in the years to come.

He says: “Councils have experienced swingeing cuts since the last recession, so the possibility of further draconian measures, which could put services on the brink, is extremely worrying.

“Planning invariably gets hit – and hit hard. So, a Budget that strengthens local authority planning and provides the resources needed to deliver 300,000 new homes and drives growth, must be welcomed.

“Certainly, stabilisation should be high on the Chancellor’s agenda, which will need to be backed-up with more investment and spending targeted specifically at planning departments to help them deliver the houses this country needs.

“Previous schemes, such as the ‘stalled sites fund’, have worked well where implemented, so there’s a blueprint there for similar initiatives in the future, if housebuilding in this country is to move forward to better times and stronger economic growth.”

Sam Dewar is a qualified planner. His firm, DPA Planning, provides services and advice to enable clients to secure town planning needs and requirements. These include turnkey services, involvement part way through a planning application, and planning enforcement support.