Planning performance in England making good progress

English local planning authorities are continuing to improve their handling times for planning applications, according to the latest half-yearly performance checklist compiled by Communities and Local Government.

Average performance across England is up seven per cent for major applications, one per cent for minor applications and a similar figure for "other" types of applications in the year ending September 2006, compared to six months ago.

In total, some 77 per cent of local planning authorities met or exceeded the government's target to decide 60 per cent of major applications within 13 weeks.

The latest performance figures also showed that 129 LPAs produced performance improvements with three – Ribble Valley, Isles of Scilly and Yorkshire Dales National Park – all deciding 100 per cent of major applications within the 13-week target.

Also just published are the quarterly development control statistics for July to September 21006. These indicated that 82 per cent of all planning decisions were made within 8 weeks, 2 per cent points higher than for the same period last year.

Planning minister, Baroness Andrews, urged the minority of authorities which have not yet reached the targets to make a real effort in the remaining months.

"Inefficiencies in the planning system can be damaging to the economy, as Kate Barker's report makes clear. And efficiency will be rewarded.

"Authorities that deliver on all three targets will be rewarded with a lump sum of £50,000 through the Planning Delivery Grant."

The performance returns showed that some 129 authorities were now designated as "improving" while 10 were classified as "declining".

Find out more about local authority performance statistics

Roger Milne

15 December 2006