Planning officers to get powers to bypass committee stage for housing

Planning officers will be able to bypass council committees to speed through approval of housing schemes under plans launched today by deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner.
Under push to modernise the planning approval process, applications that comply with local development plans could bypass the lengthy planning committee process entirely.
A key plank of this plan is to give local planning officers enhanced decision-making power to implement agreed planning policy.
The cha