Planning Authority Performance Statistics 2013/14

This report presents statistics on planning decision-making and timescales across the years 2012/13 and 2013/14. It is based on quarterly data collected by the Scottish Government from Local and Planning Authorities as part of the Planning Performance Framework (introduced in 2012). Longer term trends are also presented where data for earlier years is available in a comparable format.


5. Average decision times - Quarterly trends for Major Developments

5.1 All Major Developments

There has been an increase in the number of decisions made for major developments over the past two years and during the fourth quarter of 2013/14 there were 79 major applications decided, with an overall average decision time of 35.2 weeks, lower than both the previous quarter (36.2 weeks) and the equivalent quarter in 2012/13 (36.6 weeks). When the 15 legacy cases are included this increases to 48.8 weeks, which is the lowest average decision time that includes legacy cases over the past two years. (Quarter 4, 2013/14 - Table 2)

Chart 21: All Major developments - Number of decisions

Chart 21: All Major developments - Number of decisions

Chart 22: All Major developments - Average decision time (weeks)

Chart 22: All Major developments - Average decision time (weeks)

5.2 Major Housing

There were 36 major housing applications decided during the fourth quarter of 2013/14, with an overall average decision time of 35.3 weeks, lower than the previous quarter (44.1 weeks) and the equivalent quarter in 2012/13 (47.3 weeks). When the additional 11 legacy cases are included the average decision time increases by 21.2 weeks to 56.6 weeks. The average decision time for major housing applications shows a marked increase when legacy cases are included. The peak in the average decision time for all applications in quarter 2, 2013/14 can be attributed to a few planning authorities who committed to clearing through some older cases. (Quarter 4, 2013/14 - Table 7)

Chart 23: Major Housing developments - Number of decisions

Chart 23: Major Housing developments - Number of decisions

Chart 24: Major Housing developments -Average decision time (weeks)

Chart 24: Major Housing developments -Average decision time (weeks)

5.3 Major Business and Industry

Due to the small numbers of applications for major business and industry developments, average decision times are very variable. For the most recent quarter there were 5 applications with an overall average decision time of 16.0 weeks. The peak of 84.5 weeks for the average decision time in 2012/13 quarter 3 was due to 3 legacy cases that increased the average decision time by 58.3 weeks from 26.2 weeks. (Quarter 4, 2013/14 - Table 9)

Chart 25: Major Business and Industry developments - Number of decisions

Chart 25: Major Business and Industry developments - Number of decisions

Chart 26: Major Business and Industry developments - Average decision time (weeks)

Chart 26: Major Business and Industry developments - Average decision time (weeks)

Information on decisions for other specific categories of major developments is available within the detailed Excel tables at:
Planning Authority Performance Statistics 2013/14 Quarter 4

Contact

Email: Dorothy Watson

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