COUNCILLORS have rejected claims that removing them from planning decisions will help tackle the chronic housing shortage.

A new report from The Housing Forum has called for the removal of councillors in determining planning applications of fewer than 250 homes to “take party politics” out of the system.

The influential national industry group advocates the vast majority of applications to be made solely by planning professionals to ensure consistent and predictable decisions in a “radical step”.

The removal of councillors from the planning process is one of ten proposals to increase housing supply.

The group suggests appointing a housing minister to the cabinet able to directly commission new homes, revise the planning system to favour supply and for councils to become “pro-active leaders of house supply” with access to greater funds to directly commission housing and greater powers to work with the private sector.

The forum said councillors should set strategic planning policy but withdraw from decisions on most applications to simplify and accelerate the decision-making process.

The report claims councillor involvement made decisions “unpredictable and inconsistent” and this uncertainty caused developers to limit their investment in the sector.

Councillor Lynda Hyde, Conservative planning committee member, said: “People vote for councillors to ensure their views are represented. All planning decisions are really important and we only determine contentious or major applications.

“Officers aren’t always consistent, sometimes they may make decisions which perhaps in a year with new information they might have made differently. Our committee voting is not along political lines, it is all very mixed.

“We don’t get 250 homes applications in Brighton, one size does not fit with these plans.”