The Raynsford Review of Planning, named after the former housing minister behind the report, is set to paint the planning system in damning light.

The report, which is due to be published this week, will conclude that the system does not work in the long-term public interest because it is weaker, less regulated, and less effective than at any point in the last seven decades.

Nick Raynsford told the Sunday Times that the planning system was “confronting a major crisis”. Hugh Ellis, director of policy at the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) which commissioned the study, added that the situation was “much worse than we thought”.

Raynsford was a Labour MP and the Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 1999 to 2001 under the Blair government. He has long taken aim at the Tories’ approach to planning, claiming last June that “widespread concerns” about the planning system had motivated him to create the report.



The report found that the system was so unfit for purpose that Raynsford felt compelled to publish some of the findings early.

Ben Derbyshire, president of the Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA), also expressed frustration with the Government’s “broken” approach.

“Until we see planning as the process by means of which we design and put in place the infrastructure we need, understand housing supply as part of that investment and devolve decision making, this will continue to be the case.”

Mocking the Tories’ 2010 election slogan, Raynsford said, “There can be few, if any, public services that more justify the adage, ‘We can’t go on like this.’”