I spoke at the Sweet & Maxwell Planning Law Conference on the 11th February under the banner The planning system: a guiding light to economic recovery or a handbrake on growth? and very topical it was too.

Interestingly, one of my suggestions to a question from the floor on speeding up the planning system has supposed support from the Liberal Democrats; abolish Secretary of State decisions.

Why do we need Secretary of State intervention? When one stops to think about it, it's the antithesis of Localism, brings a strong whiff of politics into decision making, and it undermines the process and impartiality of the Planning Inspectorate. I think there's plenty wrong with the planning system, but the quality and integrity of appeal inspectors is not one of them.

The fact that the Chief Planning Inspector, Helen Adlard, was sat next to me had absolutely no bearing on my support for her appeal inspectors, albeit I was a bit sheepish about the title of my topic paper: RIP The Development Plan System. I'm not sure I got away with claiming it stood for 'reasonable improvements proposed'.