Local authorities responsible for chronic planning delays will face direct government intervention, housing minister Keith Hill has revealed. “This may involve intervention, through the best value initiative, or in the way we have done with education.” “Planners must deliver,” the minister told housebuilders at yesterday’s Housebuilder Housing Market Intelligence conference. “I can share your frustration that PPG3-friendly schemes lie undeveloped because they can’t get through the planning system, and I expect local authorities to co-operate. “We have to back this up with measures against local authorities that cannot or will not deliver, and I am prepared to be tough.” Hill told housebuilders that the Planning Bill, due to go back to Parliament next Tuesday, will contain “very important changes that respond absolutely to the demands of this industry. “We remain determined to reform planning, and the government sees that the process is being inextricably linked with the industry making greater strides in what it does and how.” Kate Barker also addressed the conference, and told delegates that she has “arrived at a clear view on land banks” in her interim report on the housing market.