Communities and Local Government

86 per cent of decisions were granted in the first quarter of 2002. This figure is stable with values of 86 to 88 per cent achieved in all other quarters in the last 6 years (Table 1 (Adobe Acrobat: 8kb) (MS Excel: 32kb)). Approval rates across the regions ranged from 91 per cent in the North East to 80 per cent in London (Table 2 (Adobe Acrobat: 9kb) (MS Excel: 42kb)).

Speed of decision

Because of seasonal variation, quarterly figures should be compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year. In the first quarter of 2002, 65 per cent of all planning decisions were made within the statutory 8 week period, 3 percentage points higher than a year ago (Table 1 (Adobe Acrobat: 8kb) (MS Excel: 32kb)). For the year ending March 2002, 65 per cent of decisions were made within 8 weeks. In January to March 2002, decisions were made quickest in the North East and North West (70 per cent within 8 weeks). Decisions were slowest in Yorkshire and the Humber (59 per cent within 8 weeks) (Table 2 (Adobe Acrobat: 9kb) (MS Excel: 42kb)). The best improvements in performance were in the North West, the West Midlands, the South East and in London, each up 5 percentage points on last year.

Authorities made 83 per cent of all decisions within 13 weeks in January to March 2002 compared with 81 per cent in the same quarter last year. For the year ending March 2002, 83 per cent were decided within 13 weeks.

Table 7 (Adobe Acrobat: 34kb) (MS Excel: 106kb) shows the number of applications decided, the percentage granted and speed of decision in the year and quarter ending March 2002 for each district planning authority. The results for speed of decision are illustrated graphically in Chart 2 (Adobe Acrobat: 12kb); this contains information for each of the authorities responding to the latest quarterly survey, ranked according to the percentage of decisions made within 8 weeks. In January to March 2002, there were 37 authorities (10 per cent of all those responding authorities) making 80 per cent or more of their decisions within the statutory 8 week period and 7 authorities making fewer than 40 per cent of decisions within 8 weeks.

Responding Authorities for January to March 2002

Of the 362 district planning authorities, 359 provided figures in time for this publication (that is, 99 per cent of all authorities). The figures relating to Tables 1 to 3 include estimates for non-responding authorities.

Applications decided under delegated powers

Since April 1997, district planning authorities have provided information about the number of applications decided by planning officers under a scheme of delegation and without referral to committee or councillors.

The final column in Table 7 (Adobe Acrobat: 34kb) (MS Excel: 106kb) shows the percentage of such decisions. Of the 355 authorities that provided information about delegated decisions in the first quarter of 2002, only 3 did not use delegated powers for any decisions and only a further 5 authorities delegated less than 10 per cent of decisions to planning officers.

Departure applications

From April 1997, district planning authorities have also provided information about the number of applications decided which were advertised as departures from the development plan in force, and the number of departure applications which were granted.

A total of 359 authorities (99 per cent) were able to provide this information for January to March 2002. Of the planning decisions taken by these authorities, 963 (less than 1 per cent) were advertised as departures from the development plan. New dwellings accounted for 44 per cent of departure decisions. An average of 59 per cent of departure applications were granted, compared with 86 per cent of planning applications overall.

Enforcement action by district planning authorities

Table 4 (Adobe Acrobat: 6kb) (MS Excel: 32kb) shows statistics of formal enforcement action taken by responding authorities in each year since data collection began in 1992/93. In January to March 2002, district planning authorities reported issuing 1,119 Enforcement Notices and served 926 Planning Contravention Notices 305 Breach of Condition Notices and 30 Stop Notices. The High Court or County Court granted 11 Enforcement Injunctions.

Regulation 3 and 4 consents

Table 5 (Adobe Acrobat: 6kb) (MS Excel: 23kb) shows the number of Regulation 3 and 4 Consents granted in each quarter since 1993/94. Under Regulation 3 of the Town and Country Planning General Regulations 1992, SI 1992/1492, a local planning authority makes an application to itself for permission to develop land within its area, and determines that application. In the first quarter of 2002, 1,333 Regulation 3 consents were reported granted and 106 Regulation 4 consents were granted. Regulation 4 is concerned with planning permission for development of land in which the local planning authority has an interest but which it does not itself propose to carry out.

Applications for determination

In January to March 2002, district planning authorities reported receiving 2,181 applications for determination whether local authority approval is required for certain works (Table 6 (Adobe Acrobat: 6kb) (MS Excel: 23kb)). They decided to intervene in 394 cases. This is 18 per cent of applications, slightly higher than in the previous quarter.

County Matters

'County matters' planning applications are predominantly concerned with minerals extraction and waste disposal developments. They are decided by the county-level planning authorities - that is, county councils, metropolitan districts, unitary authorities, London boroughs, and national park authorities. However, because of the nature of county matters applications, the large majority are handled by the county councils.

County planning authorities receive fewer than two thousand 'county matters' applications each year. This compares with about 550 thousand planning applications received by district planning authorities. Quarterly figures for 'county matters' decisions are likely to be much more variable than those for districts because of the smaller numbers of such decisions.

Planning applications and decisions

In the first quarter of 2002, county planning authorities reported receiving 461 planning applications, 2 per cent higher than for the same quarter last year. County councils accounted for 84 per cent of total applications, unitary authorities for 8 per cent and metropolitan districts for 7 per cent (Table 8 (Adobe Acrobat: 8kb) (MS Excel: 28kb)). Lancashire received the highest number this quarter (30), followed by Devon (23), North Yorkshire (22), and Cumbria and Somerset (both 21) (Table 11 (Adobe Acrobat: 13kb) (MS Excel: 41kb)).

County planning authorities reported 487 planning decisions in the quarter, 53 per cent higher than last year. Of these, 92 per cent were granted, 3 per cent higher than in the corresponding period in 2001. Waste developments accounted for 65 per cent of total decisions and minerals developments for 27 per cent (Table 9 (Adobe Acrobat: 9kb) (MS Excel: 29kb)). Cumbria reported 40 decisions, the highest number in the quarter, followed by Lancashire and North Yorkshire with 25 decisions each (Table 11 (Adobe Acrobat: 13kb) (MS Excel: 41kb)).

Table 11 shows individual numbers of permissions granted by authorities under Regulations 3 and 4 of the Town and Country Planning General Regulations 1992. The highest numbers of Regulation 3 consents were granted by Kent (61), North Yorkshire (54) and Wiltshire (52). In order to better reflect the workload of authorities, information on the total number of decisions on applications for consent, agreement or approval of details or schemes required by conditions, as defined by Article 21 of the GDPO 1995 has been collected from April 2000 and is also published in this table. In January to March 2002, the highest number of decisions was reported by Leicestershire (52). The number of determinations under the review of mineral planning permissions (ROMPs) was also collected. Seven authorities recorded 1 determination and one authority, Staffordshire, recorded 2 determinations this quarter.

Speed of decision

In the first quarter of 2002, 19 per cent of all decisions on 'county matters' applications were made within the statutory 8 week period, 3 percentage points higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2001. Authorities made 48 per cent of decisions within 13 weeks and 62 per cent within 17 weeks (Table 10 (Adobe Acrobat: 8kb) (MS Excel: 29kb)).

Enforcement action

In January to March 2002, county planning authorities issued 40 Enforcement Notices and served 12 Stop Notices, 33 Planning Contravention Notices and 14 Breach of Condition Notices. (Table 12 (Adobe Acrobat: 6kb) (MS Excel: 27kb)).

Responding authorities for January to March 2002

Of the 157 county planning authorities, 153 (97 per cent) provided figures in time for this publication.

Notes to Editors

District Planning Authorities

1. The term 'district planning authorities' describes the group of authorities with responsibility for deciding planning applications at 'district level': metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts, new unitary authorities (those created from April 1995 onwards), London boroughs and national park authorities.

2. Statistics of planning applications received and decided by district planning authorities have been collected on a quarterly basis since April 1979, on the PS1 and PS2 General Development Control statistical returns. Prior to April 1986, these returns covered applications and decisions under section 29 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 (since replaced by section 70 of the consolidated Town and Country Planning Act 1990).

3. Since then, data collection has been extended to cover other types of application requiring permission from local authorities, including listed building consents, conservation area consents and consent to display advertisements. This reflects the wider range of planning casework handled by district planning authorities. From April 1997, data have also been collected on receipt of Environmental Statements with planning applications, on the use of delegated powers, and on applications which the authority decided to advertise as departures from the Development Plan.

4. District planning authorities are sent the quarterly information bulletin together with more detailed figures for individual authorities in their respective Government Office region. These provide a set of yardsticks against which authorities can judge their own figures.

'County matters'

5. 'County matters' planning applications are predominantly concerned with minerals extraction and waste disposal developments, as set out in Schedule 1 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the Town and Country Planning (Prescription of County Matters) Regulations 1980 (SI 1980/2010) and in Annex 7 of Planning Policy Guidance Note 23 'Planning and Pollution Control'.

6. Prior to April 1986 decisions made by county councils had been included in the returns (PS1/PS2) submitted by the district planning authorities. A review of these returns in 1985 recommended that information about county council applications should be collected separately and a quarterly collection of county council development control statistics relating to 'county matters' planning applications (the CPS1/2 Return) was introduced from the beginning of April 1989.

7. From April 1992, data collection was extended to cover other types of authority with responsibility for 'county matters' applications. From April 1995, the scope of the quarterly survey was widened to include collection of data on enforcement action taken by authorities relating to 'county matters' developments and from April 1997, data have also been collected on receipt of Environmental Statements with 'county matters' planning applications. From April 2000, information has been collected on the total number of (i) decisions on applications for consent, agreement or approval of details or schemes required by conditions, as defined by Article 21 of the GDPO 1995, and (ii) determinations of new conditions under the review, or periodic review, of mineral planning permissions (ROMPs).

Data presentation

8. All figures included in the commentary have been calculated using unrounded data. As a result, there may be some apparent discrepancy with figures shown in the tables.

9. All statistics shown in Tables 1 to 3, Chart 1 and Maps 1 and 2 are based on information provided to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister by 10 June 2002. These will include estimates for non-responding authorities. Figures received by 17 June have been included in Tables 4 to 6, Tables 8 to 12 and Chart 2. Figures received from planning authorities after that date have been included in Table 7 (Adobe Acrobat: 34kb) (MS Excel: 106kb) where this was possible within the publication schedule.

10. The reorganisation of local government in England has necessitated a change in the presentation of statistics for local authority areas. Where data are presented by 'type of authority' in Table 2 (Adobe Acrobat: 9kb) (MS Excel: 42kb), figures for unitary authorities are included in the category 'non?metropolitan districts'. Figures for unitary authorities are shown in Table 7 (Adobe Acrobat: 34kb) (MS Excel: 106kb) within the former county structure. In Tables 8 to 11 (relating to 'county matters'), figures are shown separately for the category 'unitary authorities'

11. A guide to the composition of Government Office Regions and their relationship to the Standard Statistical Regions is given at Annex A (Adobe Acrobat: 22kb).

Figures for the Standard Statistical Regions are available on request from the