Planning performance statistics: third quarter, 2016-2017

5. Legal Agreements

The timescales for applications with legal agreements 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

5.1 Local developments with Legal Agreements

In quarter three of 2016/17 there were 75 applications for local developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 32.4 weeks, the quickest average decision time since the start of this data collection in quarter one of 2012/13.( Quarter 3, 2016/17 - Table 3)

Chart 31: Local developments with Legal Agreements: Number of decisions

Chart 32: Local developments with Legal Agreements: Average decision time (weeks)

5.2 Major developments with Legal Agreements

In quarter three of 2016/17 there were 34 applications for major developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 46.7 weeks, quicker by more than 30 weeks compared to the previous quarter (76.9 weeks) and quicker than the equivalent quarter three figures for earlier years. Included in this quarter's figures are three lengthy decisions that each took longer than two years. ( Quarter 3, 2016/17 - Table 2)

Chart 33: Major developments with Legal Agreements: Number of decisions

Chart 34: 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 over the average decision time for major applications noted above.