Planning performance statistics: annual and quarterly reports, 2012-2016

6. Average decision times - Quarterly trends for Legal Agreements

The timescales for applications with legal agreements ( Quarter 4, 2015/16: Tables 2 & 3) are dependent on the nature of the application, the particular complexities involved and the willingness of both the applicant and the planning authority to progress the matter at pace. Delays in concluding legal agreements are one of the more frequent reasons for the clock to be stopped on the decision time for an application. Better reporting of these delays is likely to contribute to some improvement in average decision times.

6.1 Local Developments with Legal Agreements

In the latest quarter there were 111 applications (validated post 3rd August 2009) where planning authorities have had planning/legal agreements in place for local developments. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 43.6 weeks, slower than both the previous quarter (36.5 weeks) and the corresponding quarters in 2014/15 (42.2 weeks) and 2013/14 (41.9 weeks).

Chart 35: Local developments with Legal Agreements: Number of decisions

Chart 36: Local developments with Legal Agreements: Average decision time (weeks)

6.2 Major Developments with Legal Agreements

There were 19 applications (validated post 3rd August 2009) where planning authorities have had planning/legal agreements in place for major developments. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 31.5 weeks in quarter 4 of 2015/16, quicker than the previous quarter (59.3 weeks) and the quickest quarterly figure since the start of this data collection in quarter 1 of 2012/13.

Chart 37: Major developments with Legal Agreements: Number of decisions

Chart 38: Major developments with Legal Agreements: Average decision time (weeks)

The timescales involved in concluding legal agreements prior to issue of planning permission will have had a significant influence on the overall average decision times for major applications.