PLANNING cuts make the UK Government’s housing targets impossible to meet, according to the vast majority of local authorities, who also want to see a rise in fees.

Nearly 90 per cent of local authorities believe that a cash injection is needed as their planning department resources are not sufficient to meet the target of a million new homes by 2020, according to new research.

The research, from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) and the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), is the first of its kind to draw upon the experience of both local authorities and SME house builders from right across the UK.

Overall, it found that 64 per cent of builders and 45 per cent of local authorities see lack of planning resources as a barrier to developing small sites, and more than half of councils deliver fewer than 40 per cent of homes on small sites.

Builders and local authorities are calling for councils to be allowed to raise planning application fees to help them deal with the lack of resources.

“The Government aims to build one million new homes by 2020 won’t be realised unless more SME house builders can enter the housing market, said Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB.

“That’s why the barriers that SME house builders currently face need to be removed.

“We know that the availability of suitable small sites and the difficulty of getting planning permission on them are two of the biggest barriers these firms face.

“In this research, both local authorities and SME builders identify under-resourcing as a key barrier to allocating more small sites and getting planning permissions in place on them,” he pointed out.

According to Jonathan Carr-West, LGiU chief executive, there is a large untapped potential in small sites, but resource and capacity pressures in planning departments are making it difficult to unlock.