<b>Allison Heller reports on the recent Building for Life national conference</b><p></p><p> The government is &amp;“actively working on a Bill&amp;” to improve the planning system according to new housing minister Lord Rooker. He told the conference that it hopes to put the Bill to Parliament after the summer recess. Rooker gave no further details but said: &amp;“We need to sort out the planning system, there is no question about that. We do intend to speed up the process; we do intend to make it less adversarial; we want planning to assist development, not snuff it out. We want to have a structure where developers know what they can apply for with a reasonable chance of getting approval.&amp;”</p><p>But he told delegates not to wait on the Bill, reminding them that there are &amp;“lots of procedures we can already use without necessarily going to Parliament for fresh legislation&amp;”. </p><p>The minister said he was aware of the challenges facing the industry. &amp;“We do realise there is a problem of capacity in planning with local authorities. We wish to have a step change there; they do need more resources. </p><p>&amp;“I know there is a capacity problem in more ways than one, and we need to …