https://backofmind.substack.com/p/slight-return
Why does infrastructure cost so much? Because the planning inquiry process takes a long time and generates tens of thousands of pages of documentation.
Why does it take so long and generate so many reports? Because of the need to avoid even slower and more expensive litigation.
Why is litigation such a risk? Among other reasons, because professional services firms market their services to take advantage of any imperfection in the consultation process to allow a do-over for anyone who lost the argument in the original inquiry.
Why is any small imperfection a potential basis for litigation? Because a standard has been allowed to develop which effectively makes it a de facto legal requirement for every possible impact of a project to be the subject of a professional report.
Why has this standard been allowed to develop? Well now, there’s an interesting question.
It’s not that anyone has necessarily set out to manipulate things to reach this way. It’s self-organising.