At last a Secretary of State who is prepared to take action against poor performing local planning authorities.  For too long those authorities who could not be bothered to prepare up to date local plans have been allowed to get away with little sanction, other than losing the occasional planning appeal.  So its good to see an interventionist Secretary of State, and it looks like his actions are bearing some fruit.  It will be important to ensure that the threats of action are followed through against those authorities who still fail to perform, and that means the Secretary of State having the resources to do so himself.