With the aim of making it easier to build new homes, Sylvia Pinel, the French Minister for Housing, wants to speed up the process of obtaining planning permission so that it takes no longer than 5 months to process.
By means of a decree presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday 8 July, the Minister wants to make it easier to obtain planning permission when related authorisations under the Heritage Code or the Environmental Code are required.
In some cases, building projects require various authorisations or opinions, depending on their size, location or architectural interest. In these cases, lack of coordination between the various departments can lead to delays of up to 5 months.
The decree is based on the proposals made by Prefect Jean-Pierre Duport in his report on speeding up construction projects, which was submitted to the ministers for ecology and housing at the beginning of April.
This follows on from French President François Hollande's wish to see the time taken to issue planning permission limited to 5 months in all cases.
In her decree, Sylvia Pinel has amended the timescales for issuing planning permission to comply with the President's announcement.
For building projects located within the protection perimeter of listed or registered historic buildings, the current 6-month time limit will be reduced to 4 months. Planning permission for a building adjoining a listed building will have the same 4-month period.
The reduction in time limits will also apply to projects relating to buildings located on sites classified under the Environmental Code.
Establishments open to the public and high-rise buildings will also be affected by this desire to speed up procedures. The notice required from the prefect for the construction of these structures will be reduced from 5 to 4 months.
With these measures, the decree aims to meet the objective of simplifying town planning rules by speeding up the issue of permits, with a view to boosting construction.
