The idea
Many planning officers reject planning applications which ultimately get approved on appeal. They have an incentive to reject – it keeps them in a job. I suggest they should be penalised, say £100 for every application where their rejection is overturned on appeal and that they are awarded a bonus of say £1000 everytime their rejection is ultimately approved by the Minister of State. Clearly every planning authority could review its own losing cases and identify the common mistakes they had made – there should be no reason for making mistakes in future. Equally, planning authorities could identify common elements in the cases where the Minister supported them – and they could consistently earn bonuses. Obviously the exact numbers – £100 penalty and £1000 bonus – could (and should) be adjusted from time to time to make the whole process virtually 'cost neutral'.
Doubtless it might be difficult to force this regime on autonomous 'district councils', but a start could be made by forcing it on the National Parks – starting with the 'Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority'.
Why is it important?
Negativity by planning officers wastes time and money, and the appeals system is skewed in favour of the better educated who can best write lucid arguements in support of their planning applications.