Communities and Local Government

• Planning, building and the environment
• Planning applications July to September 2000

Planning, building and the environment

Planning applications July to September 2000

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Commentary

DETR Press Notice Number PA-3
Released on 15 December 2000

Planning applications

In the third quarter of 2000, district planning authorities in England received 137 thousand applications for planning permission and other related consents, 3 per cent higher than in the corresponding period in 1999 (Table 1 , Adobe Acrobat - 22kb). This is the largest number of applications received in the third quarter since 1989.

The number of applications received increased in all regions apart from the North East (down 1 per cent) and the West Midlands (down 0.4 per cent). There were large increases in the South West (up 10 per cent) and the North West (up 7 per cent) (Map 1 , Adobe Acrobat - 183kb).

Planning decisions

District planning authorities made 132 thousand planning decisions in the third quarter of 2000, 3 per cent higher than a year earlier and the largest number received in any one quarter in ten years. Most regions saw an increase in the number of decisions. The largest were in London (up 9 per cent), the South West (up 5 per cent) and the East of England and the North West (up 4 per cent). The number of decisions fell in the North East by 10 per cent (Table 2, Adobe Acrobat - 27kb, Map 2 , Adobe Acrobat - 181kb).

The increase in the number of planning decisions is largely due to decisions on householder applications increasing from 58,600 in July to September 1999 (46 per cent of all decisions) to 63,000 in July to September 2000 (48 per cent of all decisions). The number of decisions relating to new dwellings has increased from 13,100 last year to 13,600 and accounts for 10 per cent of the total (Table 3 , Adobe Acrobat - 30kb).

Chart 1 (Adobe Acrobat - 19kb) shows the number of planning applications decided and the percentage decided within 8 weeks (both actual and seasonally adjusted), in each quarter since July to September 1990.

Applications granted

District planning authorities granted 88 per cent of the applications they decided in the third quarter of 2000. This figure rarely changes; values of 87 per cent or 88 per cent have been achieved in each quarter in the last 6 years (Table 1 , Adobe Acrobat - 22kb). Approval rates across the regions ranged from 83 per cent in London to 93 per cent in the North East (Table 2 , Adobe Acrobat - 27kb).

Speed of decision

In the third quarter of 2000, 63 per cent of all planning decisions were made within the statutory 8 week period, no change on the third quarter of 1999 (Table 1 , Adobe Acrobat - 22kb). This is the first time in two years that the percentage decided within 8 weeks has not increased when compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year. For the year ending September 2000, 63 per cent of decisions were made within 8 weeks, an increase of 0.3 percentage points on the previous year.

The largest increases in the percentage of decisions made within 8 weeks were in the East Midlands (up 2 percentage points) and the North West (up 1 percentage point). Decreases were experienced in London (down 2 percentage points), the North East and East of England (down 1 percentage point) and Yorkshire and the Humber (down 0.3 percentage points) (Table 2 , Adobe Acrobat - 27kb). Authorities made 83 per cent of all decisions within 13 weeks, 1 percentage point lower than a year earlier.

Table 7 shows the number of applications decided, the percentage granted and speed of decision for each district planning authority in July to September 2000 and in the year ending September 2000. The results for speed of decision are illustrated graphically in Chart 2 (Adobe Acrobat - 15kb); 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 July to September 2000, there were 32 authorities (9 per cent of all those responding authorities) making 80 per cent or more of their decisions within the statutory 8 week period and 14 authorities making fewer than 40 per cent of decisions within 8 weeks.

Responding Authorities for July to September 2000

Of the 362 district planning authorities, 352 provided figures in time for this publication (that is, 97 per cent of all authorities). The figures relating to Table 1 (Adobe Acrobat - 181kb), Table 2 (Adobe Acrobat - 27kb) and Table 3 (Adobe Acrobat - 181kb) 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.

A column at Table 7 (Adobe Acrobat - 93kb) shows the percentage of such decisions. Of the 350 authorities that provided information about delegated decisions in the third quarter of 2000, less than 1 per cent did not use delegated powers for any decisions.

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 352 authorities (97 per cent) were able to provide this information for the period July to September 2000. Of the planning decisions taken by these authorities, 1,055 (1 per cent) were advertised as departures from the development plan. New dwellings accounted for 40 per cent of departure decisions. An average of 58 per cent of departure applications were granted, compared with 88 per cent of planning applications overall.

Enforcement action by district planning authorities

Table 4 shows statistics of formal enforcement action taken by responding authorities in each year since data collection began in 1992/93. In July to September 2000, district planning authorities reported issuing 1,049 Enforcement Notices and served 1,107 Planning Contravention Notices, 301 Breach of Condition Notices and 35 Stop Notices. The High Court or County Court granted all 23 Enforcement Injunctions.

Regulation 3 and 4 consents

Table 5 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 third quarter of 2000, 1,323 Regulation 3 consents were reported granted and 79 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 the third quarter of 2000, district planning authorities reported receiving 3,197 applications for determination whether local authority approval is required for certain works (Table 6 , Adobe Acrobat - 15kb). District planning authorities decided to intervene in 515 cases. This is 16 per cent of applications received and is over 1 percentage point higher than last 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 about two thousand county matters applications each year. This compares with about 500 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 third quarter of 2000, county planning authorities reported receiving 481 planning applications, 4 per cent more than in the corresponding quarter in 1999. County councils accounted for 83 per cent of total applications, metropolitan districts for 9 per cent and unitary authorities for 6 per cent (Table 8 , Adobe Acrobat - 23kb). Cornwall and Kent received the highest numbers of applications, 74 and 35 respectively (Table 11 , Adobe Acrobat - 34kb).

County planning authorities reported 394 planning decisions in the quarter, 3 per cent lower than a year earlier. Of these, 90 per cent were granted, 4 percentage points higher than in the corresponding period in 1999. Waste developments accounted for 55 per cent of total decisions and minerals developments for 34 per cent (Table 9 , Adobe Acrobat - 23kb). Cornwall and Kent also reported the highest numbers of decisions in the quarter, 36 and 25 respectively (Table 11 , Adobe Acrobat - 34kb).

Table 11 (Adobe Acrobat - 34kb) 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 (63) and North Yorkshire (62). 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 July to September 2000, the highest numbers of decisions were reported by Devon (28) and Leicestershire (26). The number of determinations under the review of mineral planning permissions (ROMPs) was also collected. Somerset recorded 7 determinations, the highest this quarter.

Speed of decision

In the third quarter of 2000, 16 per cent of all decisions on county matters applications were made within the statutory 8 week period, 2 percentage points higher than in the corresponding quarter of 1999. Authorities made 41 per cent of decisions within 13 weeks and 60 per cent within 17 weeks (Table 10 , Adobe Acrobat - 22kb).

Enforcement action

In the period July to September 2000, county planning authorities issued 27 Enforcement Notices and served 9 Stop Notices, 42 Planning Contravention Notices and 17 Breach of Condition Notices (Table 12 , Adobe Acrobat - 15kb).

Responding authorities for July to September 2000

Of the 157 county planning authorities, 152 (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 the Tables are based on information provided to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions by 1 December 2000. Figures received from planning authorities after that date have been included only in Table 7 (Adobe Acrobat - 93kb) and only 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. Figures for the new unitary authorities are shown in Table 7 (Adobe Acrobat - 93kb) within the former county structure.

11. Where data are presented by 'type of authority' in Table 2 (Adobe Acrobat - 27kb) , figures for unitary authorities are included in the category 'non-metropolitan districts'. In Table 8 (Adobe Acrobat - 23kb), Table 9 (Adobe Acrobat - 23kb), Table 10 (Adobe Acrobat - 22kb) and Table 11 (Adobe Acrobat - 34kb)  (relating to county matters), figures are shown separately for the category 'unitary authorities'.

12. A guide to the composition of Government Office Regions and their relationship to the Standard Statistical Regions is given at Annex A (Adobe Acrobat - 18kb) . Figures for the Standard Statistical Regions are available on request from the Planning and Land Use Statistics Division, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 3/K9, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU. Tel 020-7944 5502 Fax. 020-7944 5519.