Planning performance statistics: second quarter, 2017-2018

Applications for Major Developments (excludes legacy cases)

For applications subject to average time calculations there were 57 major developments decided in quarter two of 2017/18, 2 (3.6 per cent) more than the 55 decisions in the previous quarter, and 9 (18.8 per cent) more than the 48 decisions in the equivalent quarter of 2016/17. The average decision time for these 57 major developments was 33.0 weeks, almost seven weeks quicker than the previous quarter (39.8 weeks) and quicker by almost 12 weeks compared to the equivalent quarter two figure (44.8 weeks) in 2016/17.

Chart 3: Applications for Major Developments: Number of decisions

Chart 4: Applications for Major Developments: Average decision time (weeks)

The average time figure of 33.0 weeks has been influenced by a number of lengthier decision times, including two decision times that each took longer than two years and a further six that took more than a year.

Further information on the distribution of decision times for major development applications is given in Annex A.

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 a further 23 major development applications concluded in quarter two of 2017/18 that were subject to separate processing agreements. 78.3 per cent of these applications met agreed timescales that had been set between developers and local authorities. Applications subject to processing agreements are not included in average time calculations. For the most recent quarter, major applications with processing agreements accounted for just over a quarter of the decisions made for all major developments. When processing agreements are included there is little change from the previous quarter in the total number of decisions made for major applications - 81 in quarter one of 2017/18 and 80 in quarter two of 2017/18.

There were no Major Development pre 3rd August 2009 legacy cases. Further details about legacy cases can be seen in Section 10.