Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 3 December 2012.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of planning appeals relating to major applications made to the Planning Inspectorate in each of the last five years were (a) heard and (b) decided within 13 weeks.
holding answer
Local planning authorities should decide planning applications within the statutory time limits (13 weeks for major applications, eight weeks for other applications); there is a right of appeal for non-determination if a decision is not made in that period.
78% of planning applications were determined within statutory time limits in 2011-12. However, over a fifth of applications for major development took more than half a year to determine, and 9% took more than a year; any subsequent appeal against a refusal of permission would add further time. Consequently, in the recent consultation paper, “Planning performance and the planning guarantee”, we proposed that very poor performance be classified as councils failing to determine 30% or fewer of major applications within the statutory period.
There is no 13 week timetable for appeals: appeals are typically more complex and controversial than the generality of planning applications.
However, our Planning Guarantee states that no application should spend more than 26 weeks either with the local authority or by the Planning Inspectorate; this is to ensure that the consideration of applications does not take more than one year from start to finish.
In 2011-12, the Planning Inspectorate decided 97% of appeals within its target of 26 weeks. This is considerably better performance than was under the last Administration.
The reasons for the small number of appeals taking longer than 26 weeks are outlined in the “Planning Guarantee Monitoring Report” published by my Department on
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