Planning minister Greg Clark has set out a new ‘Planning Guarantee’ which promises waste management companies that their planning applications will be dealt with swiftly.

Designed to provide greater certainty to local communities by speeding up local planning applications, the new process will see whole planning applications processed within a maximum of 12 months.

Currently, thousands of planning applications get caught in the system for over a year, leaving many companies frustrated by delays to getting a decision. In the financial year 2010/11, 3,200 planning applications took longer than 52 weeks to be determined.

Mr Clark said: “We need a simpler, swifter planning system that delivers fairness for all, from householders to local firms and shops.

“At the moment too many planning applications get stuck in the system for too long, leaving people in planning limbo.

“The planning guarantee will help remove the uncertainty from the system for communities and ensure that every application, big or small, is dealt with quickly and fairly.”