Planning performance statistics: third 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 three of 2017/18 there were 59 applications for local developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place, 29 (33 per cent) fewer than the previous quarter. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 24.3 weeks, quicker by more than seven weeks than the previous quarter (31.7 weeks) and just over two weeks quicker than quarter three in the previous year (26.4 weeks) ( Quarter 3, 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)

The average decision time figure of 24.3 weeks has been influenced by a number of lengthier times including four that each took longer than a year, one of these taking longer than two years.

5.2 Major developments with Legal Agreements

In quarter three of 2017/18 there were 24 applications for major developments where planning authorities had planning/legal agreements in place. The average time taken to make decisions on these applications was 39.3 weeks, more than three weeks quicker compared to the previous quarter (42.9 weeks) and more than seven weeks quicker than the equivalent quarter figure for 2016/17 (46.7 weeks). Included in this quarter’s figures are seven decisions that took longer than one year. The timescales involved in concluding legal agreements prior to issue of planning permission will have had a significant influence over the average decision time ( Quarter 3, 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)