Planning Applications Statistics 2024/2025: Annual and Quarterly (October 2024 to March 2025)

2. Local Developments

Local developments include applications for changes to houses and smaller developments for new housing. They also include applications covering areas of development such as minerals, business & industry, waste management, electricity generation, freshwater fish farming, marine finfish farming, marine shellfish farming, telecommunications, Approval of Matters Specified in Conditions (AMSCs) and other developments.

Some authorities use processing agreements where the developer and the authority agree on timescales for decisions. When an application is subject to a processing agreement it is not included in average decision time calculations.

2.1. All Local Developments

There were 17,644 local development applications decided in 2024/25. The average decision time for local applications without processing agreements was 11.8 weeks in 2024/25 compared to 11.6 weeks in 2023/24.

Time period for local applications

Under planning regulations, authorities should determine applications for local developments within two months of the validation date. This is the date when the last piece of information on the content is received. More information is available in the planning circular on development management procedures.

View Planning circular 3/2022: development management procedures - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The percentage decided within two months decreased slightly from 63.7% in 2023/24 to 62.9% in 2024/25.

In 2024/25, there were 3,060 local development applications with processing agreements. Agreed timescales were met for 69.6% of applications which decreased from 72.5% compared to the previous year.

2.2. Local Housing Developments

Local housing developments are those that have less than 50 dwellings or a site area that is less than 2 hectares.

There is a downward trend in local housing applications without a processing agreement, numbering 2,505 in 2024/25, compared to 2,821 in 2023/24.

In 2024/25 the average decision time for those without processing agreements (19.4 weeks) was the same as the previous year. In 2024/25 39.9% were decided within two months, slightly less (40.3%) compared to 2023/24.

There can be long decision times for some local housing developments and these affect the average (mean). However, the middle or median value of decision times (median = 12.1 weeks) was lower than the average mean value (19.4 weeks) because the median is not affected by long decision times.

784 local housing applications with processing agreements were determined. Around two thirds (69.3%) of these met timescales agreed between developers and local authorities.

2.3. Local Business and Industry Developments

Business and Industry developments include construction of a building or structure for any of the following: use as an office, for research and development of products or processes, for any industrial process or for use for storage or as a distribution centre. To be classed as local, the gross floor space must not be more than 10,000 square metres and the site area must be less than 2 hectares.

The number of local business and industry applications, without a processing agreement was 1,117 in 2024/25, lower than in the previous year (1,175). Average decision times for those applications not subject to processing agreements increased slightly from 11.5 weeks in 2023/24 to 11.7 weeks in 2024/25.

256 local business and industry applications with processing agreements were determined. Just under three quarters (73.4%) of these met agreed timescales that had been set between developers and local authorities.

2.4. Local Applications by Development Type

Just under half (47.8%) of all local applications without processing agreements were from householders making changes to their properties. These applications had the shortest average decision time of 8.3 weeks.