Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the drivers of and reasons for the doubling of the wage and salary costs of the Planning Inspectorate since April 2017.

The Planning Inspectorate deals with a range of planning and environmental casework from across government including:

• planning and environmental appeals, including against refusals of planning related applications by Local Planning Authorities and refusals of applications by other bodies including the Environment Agency.
• advising on and examining applications for nationally significant infrastructure and other infrastructure orders including large scale energy infrastructure and power generation, large road and other transport schemes like airports, and reservoirs.
• examining local plans for compliance with legal tests and national policy.
• deciding or making recommendations on a range of casework on behalf of Secretaries of State including 'called in' planning applications, Crown Development applications, Compulsory Purchase Orders, planning applications in Local Planning Authorities designated for poor performance, Drought Orders and Permits and Necessary Wayleaves.
• deciding a range of casework for Defra relating to access to the countryside, including new rights of ways, changes to existing rights of way, village and town greens and the regime to protect and manage Common Land.

Since 2017 the Planning Inspectorate has increased its employees by approximately 60%, including an increase in full time equivalent Inspectors providing advice, decisions, and recommendations from 261 to 421 (61%).

This reflects the significant increase and complexity in the Planning Inspectorate's casework over that period as well as a significant investment in digital services which has been necessary for the organisation to fulfil its critical role in delivering the agendas of successive governments.

Inflation accounts for about a third of the increase in costs over the period.