Planning performance statistics: first quarter, 2017-2018

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.

The figures exclude applications with processing agreements.

5.1 Local developments with Legal Agreements

In quarter one of 2017/18 there were 88 applications for local developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 27.0 weeks, slower by just over three weeks than the previous quarter and just over two weeks slower than quarter one in the previous year ( Quarter 1, 2017/18 – 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 one of 2017/18 there were 21 applications for major developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 43.3 weeks, quicker by more than 3 weeks compared to the previous quarter (46.4 weeks) and quicker than the equivalent quarter one figures for earlier years. Included in this quarter’s figures are eight decisions that took longer than one year, two of these taking over two years ( Quarter 1, 2017/18 – 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.