Planning performance statistics: annual and quarterly reports, 2016-2017

7. Percentages under two months - Longer term annual trends for Local Developments

Annual trends for the percentages of local developments decided within 2 months are available over several years and these are shown in this section. Legacy cases have only been analysed separately for the past five years and therefore results for 2010/11 and 2011/12 are for all applications only.

7.1 All Local Developments

Numbers of decisions on local applications decreased between the years 2010/11 to 2012/13, increased in 2013/14 but has decreased again for the latest three years (not included are the 1,194 local developments in 2016/17 that were subject to a processing agreement). There were 26,986 local applications (validated post 3rd August 2009) decided during the year 2016/17, and the percentage of these decisions made in less than two months was 75.4%, an increase from 73.4% in the previous year and the highest percentage over the past seven years. When the 4 legacy cases in 2016/17 are included the percentage of decisions made in less than two months decreases slightly to 75.3% ( Annual, 2016/17: Table 4).

Chart 45: All Local Developments: Number of decisions

Chart 46: All Local Developments: Percentage under 2 months

7.2 All Local (Non Householder) developments

The number of decisions for local non-householder developments fell to a low of 13,586 applications in 2016/17. The percentage of local (non householder) developments decided within two months was 63.8% in 2016/17, up from the previous quarter (62.4%) and the highest percentage over the past seven years. ( Annual, 2016/17: Table 5).

Chart 47: All Local Developments (Non Householder): Number of decisions

Chart 48: All Local Developments (Non Householder): Percentage under 2 months

7.3 Householder Developments

The number of decisions for householder applications fell to a low of 13,446 in 2012/13. The fall in figures between 2011/12 and 2012/13 can be partly explained by changes to permitted development rights. Permitted development rights are granted so that many instances of small alterations and extensions can be carried out without the need to submit an application for planning permission. In February 2012 these rights were extended to a wider range of categories and so led to a reduction in the number of householder developments that required planning permission. For the most recent year the number of decisions fell to a new low of 13,400 and the percentage of decisions made in under two months was 87.1%, higher than 85.7% in the previous year and the highest percentage over the past seven years. ( Annual, 2016/17: Table 6).

Chart 49: Householder developments: Number of decisions

Chart 50: Householder developments: Percentage under two months

7.4 Local Housing

The number of decisions for local housing applications fell to a low of 4,899 in 2016/17. The percentage of decisions made in under two months (for applications validated post 3rd August 2009) was 57.7%, the highest percentage over the past seven years ( Annual, 2016/17: Table 10).

Chart 51: Local Housing developments: Number of decisions

Chart 52: Local Housing developments: Percentage under 2 months

7.5 Local Business & Industry

The number of decisions made for local business and industry applications fell to a low of 1,738 in the year 2016/17 (for applications validated post 3rd August 2009). The percentage of decisions made in under two months was 70.8%, the highest percentage over the past seven years ( Annual, 2016/17: Table 12).

Chart 53: Local Business & Industry developments: Number of decisions

Chart 54: Local Business & Industry developments: Percentage under 2 months

7.6 Local Electricity Generation

There was a sharp increase in the number of decisions made on applications for local electricity generation (from 557 to 1,227) between 2010/11 and 2011/12. This has now dropped to a low of 178 applications in 2016/17. At the same time the percentage of decisions made in less than two months dropped from 49.2% in 2010/11 to a low of 29.2% in 2012/13 (for applications validated post 3rd August 2009). For the most recent year the percentage of decisions made in less than two months is 40.4% down from 43.7% in 2015/16. ( Annual, 2016/17: Table 16).

Chart 55: Local Electricity Generation developments: Number of decisions

Chart 56: Local Electricity Generation developments: Percentage under 2 months

7.7 Local Other Developments

After householder developments applications for other developments are the most frequent type of local application. This is the category for developments that do not fall into one of the other specific categories of application and includes, for example, applications for retail developments, food and drink outlets, hotels, hospitals, schools and leisure & tourism developments. From 2010/11 to 2013/14 there was an improvement in the percentage of decisions made in under two months to a high of 67.7% (for applications validated post 3rd August 2009). The percentage for the latest year is 67.3%, similar to the previous year (67.4%). ( Annual, 2016/17: Table 20).

Chart 57: Local Other developments: Number of decisions

Chart 58: Local Other developments: Percentage under 2 months

Information on decisions for other specific categories of local developments is available within the detailed excel tables at: Planning Authority Performance Statistics 2016/17 Annual