Planning performance statistics: second quarter, 2017-2018

Applications for Local Developments (excludes legacy cases)

There were 6,849 applications for local developments decided in quarter two of 2017/18, 118 (1.7 per cent) less than the 6,967 decisions in the previous quarter, and 165 (2.5 per cent) more applications than the 6,684 decisions in quarter two of 2016/17. The average decision time for these 6,849 local developments was 9.0 weeks, slower by just over a day compared to the previous quarter (8.8 weeks), but slightly quicker than the equivalent quarter (9.1 weeks) in 2016/17.

Chart 1: Applications for Local Developments: Number of decisions

Chart 2: Applications for Local Developments: Average decision time (weeks)

Some of the changes over time seen in the decision times may be partly due to improvements in recording of periods of inaction by the applicant. This is referred to as "stopping the clock". See Section 9 for further details.

In addition, there were 423 local development applications concluded in quarter two of 2017/18 that were subject to separate processing agreements and are not included in average time calculations. 81.3 per cent of these applications met the agreed timescales that had been set between developers and local authorities.

These figures exclude one pre 3rd August 2009 legacy case. Further details about legacy cases can be seen in Section 10.