Putting things right
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We upheld all of these complaints and made recommendations for the Planning Inspectorate to put things right.
We issued reports for Mr A’s and Company C’s complaints first. In those cases, we recommended that the Planning Inspectorate apologise to Mr A and to Company C. We also recommended that the Planning Inspectorate pay their wasted costs (£3,970 for Mr A and £40,294 for Company C) with interest and that they make a small consolatory payment in recognition of the inconvenience that the Planning Inspectorate caused Mr A, and because their failure to put things right sooner had prevented Company C from taking action to mitigate some of the costs they incurred.
That put things right for Mr A and Company C, but the Planning Inspectorate’s approach had wider implications. As well as these cases, there was another group of individuals and organisations who had been affected by the Planning Inspectorate’s decision to stop making ex gratia payments. We recommended that the Planning Inspectorate properly consider all of the other complaints where compensation had been refused solely as a result of the closure of the ex gratia payment scheme. We asked them to give those individuals and organisations appropriate redress too.
The Planning Inspectorate responded positively to that recommendation and promptly considered the other claims they had previously turned down. As well as the four cases outlined in this report, the Planning Inspectorate considered 14 other claims for financial redress. In total, the Planning Inspectorate made payments totalling £312,243 plus interest.
As a result of that work, while we were investigating Mr B’s and Mr D’s complaints, the Planning Inspectorate put matters right for them. They apologised, paid the complainants’ wasted costs (£35,013 for Mr B and £22,418 for Mr D) with interest, and made consolatory payments for the inconvenience the Planning Inspectorate had caused them. Those remedies were sufficient to put matters right for Mr B and Mr D and we did not make any further recommendations to the Planning Inspectorate.As a result of these investigations, the Planning Inspectorate reconsidered their approach to remedying complaints. They amended their guidance to include a new section on ‘Putting things right’. This tells complainants how the Planning Inspectorate will consider claims for financial remedy when the Planning Inspectorate have made an error. The Planning Inspectorate also told us that they have revised their guidance for considering claims for financial redress, and that they will now consider all claims individually, based on the facts of the case.
As a result of our investigations, the Planning Inspectorate have taken appropriate action to put things right. They have provided remedies for all those affected by their decision and now have a process in place to consider claims for financial redress properly. This demonstrates effective learning from these complaints, and an improvement in the service they provide. These investigations were the catalyst for the Planning Inspectorate to reconsider their approach, and the new approach should allow them to deal properly with claims for financial redress in future. That is the most cost effective way to deal with complaints.
