Planning performance statistics 2021/2022: Quarterly (April 2021 to September 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 first two quarters of 2021/22 there were 233 applications for local developments without processing agreements where planning authorities had planning/ legal agreements in place, 80 more than in the same period in the previous year. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 25.3 weeks, just under two weeks quicker than the 27.1 weeks for the same period in 2020/21.

78 local applications subject to processing agreements also had planning/legal agreements in place, 59% of these met agreed timescales.

5.2 Major developments with Legal Agreements

In the first two quarters of 2021/22 there were 26 applications for major developments without processing agreements decided where planning authorities had planning/ legal agreements in place, six more than in the same period in the previous year. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 100.7 weeks, over 33 weeks slower than the 67.6 weeks for the same period in 2020/21.

The average decision time of 148.4 weeks in quarter one was substantially influenced by three applications with decision times of more than five years (5.7, 6.1 and 6.9 years). The average decision time for the remaining 9 applications was 89.2 weeks, more than 59 weeks quicker.

20 major applications subject to processing agreements also had planning/legal agreements in place, 55% of these met agreed timescales.