Councils improve planning performance

The government has removed three local authorities – Kirklees, the London Borough of Southwark and Waveney - from the list of poorly performing planning authorities.

This move came as ministers revealed that nationally some 127 authorities had improved their planning performance in the six months since September 2005.

Latest officially-compiled planning statistics show that around 70 per cent of authorities met or surpassed their target of handling 60 per cent of their major applications within 13 weeks in the last financial year, up from just 55 per cent six months ago.

Quarterly statistics have also indicated that 81 per cent of all planning decisions were made within 8 weeks between January and March 2006, up three per cent from the same period 12 months ago.

Planning minister Baroness Andrews said: "Continued increasing performance over recent years means that the planning system is now delivering on time for homeowners and businesses across the country – but we also need to go further."

She added: "We want to sustain these rates of improvement so that in a year's time every local planning authority in England is meeting their timeliness targets".

Local Authority Performance Statistics

Roger Milne

6 July 2006