Planning performance statistics 2021/2022: Quarterly (April 2021 to September 2021)

This report presents summary statistics on planning application decision-making timescales for April to September 2021, as well as historic data back to 2017/18. It is based on data collected from Local and Planning Authorities as part of the Planning Performance Framework (introduced in 2012).

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Applications for Local Developments (excludes legacy cases)

There were 15,031 decisions on local developments in the first two quarters of 2021/22. This was 4,130 (38%) more than the same period in the previous year and the most applications determined in both quarter one and two since 2015/16. The average decision time for the 13,403 of these which were not subject to processing agreements was 10.2 weeks, just over a day slower than the corresponding time of 10.0 weeks for the first two quarters of 2020/21.

Chart 1: Applications for Local Developments (excluding legacy cases)

Combined line and bar chart showing quarterly trends since 2017/18. 
Trends show an increase in the number of local applications decided in quarters one and two compared to the previous four years with a marked increase since last year which showed a substantial impact from Covid-19 restrictions. Numbers for the last two quarters match and slightly exceed what may have been expected from the general trend shown prior to the start of Covid-19 impacts in 2020/21. Average decision times continue to be higher than for quarters prior to the start of Covid-19 impacts in 2020/21 with 10.7 weeks for quarter two being the slowest quarter in the last five years.

In quarter one there were 772 local development applications with processing agreements, 75.4% (582) met agreed timescales that had been set between developers and local authorities. In quarter two there were 856, 77.7% (665) meeting the agreed timescales.

There was also one Local Development pre 3rd August 2009 legacy case determined. Further details about legacy cases can be seen in Section 11.

Contact

Email: planstats@gov.scot

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