The UK’s complex planning system is slowing new store openings and hampering job creation, according to Aldi UK boss Giles Hurley, speaking just months after other retailers called for discount stores to be held to the same planning rules as mainstream supermarkets.

The discounter chief executive said that a once straightforward 12-week planning process can now take up to three years, with rival retailers using objections to delay new stores for as long as possible.

“There are a number of hurdles in the way of moving at the pace we’d like to. It’s now more convoluted,” Hurley told The Times.

Aldi has announced ambitious plans to extend its store estate this year, with 40 new stores planned. The £650m expansion plan is expected to create around 1,600 new jobs. However, Hurley said that the retailer’s plans are increasingly shaped by the inefficiencies of the UK planning framework.

“Clearly there’s a benefit for inward investment into the country and also for customers in terms of choice and value,” said Hurley. “We work with the government to try and keep the system as efficient as we can.”

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

Rival retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s repeatedly file objections to planning applications, raising concerns about the potential impact of new Aldi branches on local centres and planning guidelines, said Hurley.

“Sometimes on matters which we think are pretty spurious. That delays us; it doesn’t stop us, but these are frustrating delays around investments and job creation.”

However, other retailers have previously accused Aldi and fellow discount grocer Lidl of preventing competitive stores opening on retail parks and called for a resetting of planning rules.

Last July, Iceland chairman Richard Walker said the discounters were using “legal tricks” to create property deal clauses that prevented competitors from opening in the same areas.

In April this year the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) considered putting planning restrictions on Aldi and Lidl to ensure a level playing field in the UK grocery sector.

The competition watchdog was reviewing the Groceries Market Investigation (Controlled Land) Order, which looks to maintain competition between supermarkets by restricting major players from blocking nearby rival store openings.

The order currently only applies to Tesco, Sainsbury’s Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose, M&S and Co-op. Aldi and Lidl are exempt, since they had a much smaller UK presence when the regulations first came into force in 2010.