The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is launching a pan industry Planning Mediation Service which is aimed at reducing deadlock in the system for both developers and property owners.
It is hoped that it can alleviate the strain on the planning appeal process and help save money both for public authorities and individual applicants. It will give people access to professional mediators in the planning system.
The move is a direct response to recommendations in the Killian Pretty Review that was commissioned by the UK government to look at ways of improving the planning system.
One of the recommendations was that mediation was a useful tool to speed up the planning process by resolving disputes quickly and amicably and by encouraging dialogue and discouraging entrenched positioning.
It is estimates that there are 20,000 planning appeals every year costing the planning system in the region of £30 million. The new service will help resolve issues, open up dialogue and reduce areas of disputes in a wide range of planning issues. It will also help smooth over disagreements surrounding section 106 agreements and compulsory purchase orders.
‘This service will provide both parties in a dispute some relief from what is a costly procedure for the local authority and for the appellant. Currently, the planning system is clogged up with combative appeals which more often than not result in a deadlocked situation,’ explained Martin Burns, director of the RICS dispute resolution service.
‘Mediation will provide a solution to this problem, save valuable time and improve transparency, speed and clarity in the planning process,’ he added. As the world’s leading qualification body with members
throughout the globe, RICS is recognised as leading the way when it comes to professional standards in land, property and construction.
In a world where more and more people, governments, banks and commercial organisations demand greater certainty of professional standards and ethics, attaining RICS status is the recognised mark of property professionalism. Over 100 000 property professionals working in the major established and emerging economies of the world have already recognised the importance of securing RICS status by becoming members. RICS is a regulator of both its individual members and firms enabling it to maintain the highest standards and providing the basis for unparalleled client confidence in the sector.