Planning Performance Statistics 2020/21: Quarterly (October 2020 To March 2021)

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 the final six months of 2020/21 there were 201 applications for local developments without processing agreements where planning authorities had planning/ legal agreements in place, 14 fewer than in the same period in the previous year. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 36.8 weeks, 12 weeks slower than the 24.8 weeks for the same period in 2019/20.

95 local applications subject to processing agreements also had planning/legal agreements in place, 64% of these met agreed timescales.

5.2 Major developments with Legal Agreements

In the final six months of 2020/21 there were 36 applications for major developments decided where planning authorities had planning/ legal agreements in place, two fewer than in the same period in the previous year. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 66.5 weeks, over 22 weeks slower than the 44.0 weeks for the same period in 2019/20.

The average decision time of 73.9 weeks in quarter four was significantly influenced by a single application with a decision time of 9.9 years; the average decision time for the remaining 18 applications was 49.4 weeks, more than 24 weeks quicker.

29 major applications subject to processing agreements also had planning/legal agreements in place, 45% of these met agreed timescales.