Planning performance statistics: 2018-2019 yearend

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 which also had processing agreements.

5.1 Local developments with Legal Agreements

In the last six months of 2018/19 there were 189 applications for local developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place, 51 (37.0%) more than in the same period in the previous year. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 35.3 weeks, more than six weeks slower than the 28.9 weeks for the same period in 2017/18.

Chart 30: Local developments with Legal Agreements: Number of decisions

Chart 31: Local developments with Legal Agreements: Average decision time (weeks)

There were 79 applications with planning/legal agreements for local developments decided in quarter three of 2018/19, 20 (33.9%) more than in the equivalent quarter in the previous year. The average decision time was 39.8 weeks, more than 15 weeks slower than the 24.3 weeks for quarter three in the previous year. The average decision time was influenced by a number of applications with long decision times including seven with times of more than two years, the longest taking more than four years (Year End, 2018/19 – Table 3).

There were 110 applications with planning/legal agreements for local developments decided in quarter four of 2018/19, 31 (39.2%) more than in the same quarter in the previous year. The average decision time was 32.1 weeks, slightly quicker than the 32.4 weeks for quarter four in the previous year (Year End, 2018/19 – Table 3). The average decision time was influenced by a number of applications with long decision times including four with times of more than two years, two of which took over six years.

5.2 Major developments with Legal Agreements

In the last six months of 2018/19 there were 30 applications for major developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place, 17 (36.2%) fewer than in the same period in the previous year. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 47.2 weeks, more than two weeks slower than the 44.5 weeks for the same period in 2017/18.

Chart 32: Major developments with Legal Agreements: Number of decisions

Chart 33: Major developments with Legal Agreements: Average decision time (weeks)

There were 18 major development applications with planning/legal agreements decided in quarter three of 2018/19, six (25.0%) fewer than in the same quarter in the previous year. The average decision time was 41.6 weeks, just over two weeks slower than the 39.3 weeks for quarter three in the previous year. The average decision time was influenced by a number of applications with long decision times including six with times of more than one year (Year End, 2018/19 – Table 2).

There were 12 major development applications with planning/legal agreements decided in quarter four of 2018/19, eleven (47.8%) fewer than in the same quarter in the previous year. The average decision time was 55.7 weeks, almost six weeks slower than the 49.9 weeks for quarter two in the previous year. The average decision time was influenced by a number of applications with long decision times including four with times of more than one year, the longest taking 2.8 years (Year End, 2018/19 – Table 2).