"Unhelpful", "anti-growth" and having "little understanding of...small businesses" - guess who!

***

You guessed right?

Industry body the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has launched a blistering attack on council planners, calling for the wider use of powers to cut them out of the development process.

It has been coming for a while...

...the vast majority of its members who had used the planning system found it to be "utterly impenetrable".


The report said: "This complexity, cost and the unhelpful culture of planning officers create a disincentive to submit even a minor planning application."

According to the survey, 53 per cent of small businesses applying for planning permission in the past two years found the rules overly complex, with 38 per cent finding they had difficulty obtaining advice from officers.

Neither impressive nor surprising since planning is inherently anti-development and anti-business - well small business anyway.  Big business can afford the expensive consultants, the flashy masterplanners and the slick lawyers needed to get through the resistance of councils.

....