Communities and Local Government

• Planning, building and the environment
• Planning applications January to March 2000

Planning, building and the environment

Planning applications January to March 2000

Commentary

DETR Press Notice Number 435
Released on 30 June 2000

DISTRICT PLANNING AUTHORITIES

Planning applications
In the first quarter of 2000, district planning authorities in England received 140 thousand applications for planning permission and other related consents, 9 per cent higher than in the corresponding period in 1999 (Table 1). This is the largest number of applications received in any one quarter in almost 10 years.

The number of applications received increased in all regions. There were large increases in London (up 15 per cent), East of England (up 13 per cent), the South East (up 11 per cent) and the West Midlands and the South West (up 8 per cent). The smallest increases were in the North East (up 1 per cent) and the North West (up 4 per cent) (Map 1).

Planning decisions

District planning authorities made 114 thousand planning decisions in the first quarter of 2000, 8 per cent higher than a year earlier. The largest increases were in the East of England (up 13 per cent), the South East (up 10 per cent) and the South West and London (up 8 per cent). Only the North East showed a decrease (down 1 per cent) (Table 2, Map 2).

The increase in the number of planning decisions is largely due to decisions on householder applications increasing from 40,700 in January to March 1999 (38 per cent of all decisions) to 48,800 in January to March 2000 (43 per cent of all decisions). The number of decisions relating to new dwellings has increased from 12,100 last year to 12,800 and now accounts for 11 per cent of the total (Table 3).

Chart 1 shows the number of planning applications decided and the percentage decided within 8 weeks (both actual and seasonally adjusted), in each quarter since January to March 1990.

Applications granted
District planning authorities granted 88 per cent of the applications they decided in the first 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). Approval rates across the regions are also fairly constant and usually change by no more than 1 percentage point (Table 2).

Speed of decision
In the first quarter of 2000, 62 per cent of all planning decisions were made within the statutory 8 week period compared with 61 per cent in the first quarter of 1999 (Table 1). These figures are rounded and the actual increase is just 0.5 percentage points. This is the sixth consecutive quarter in which the percentage decided within 8 weeks has increased when compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year. For the financial year 1999/2000, 63 per cent of decisions were made within 8 weeks compared with 62 per cent in 1998/99.

The largest increases in the percentage of decisions made within 8 weeks were in Yorkshire and the Humber (up 4 percentage points), East Midlands (up 3 percentage points) and the North East and North West (up 2 percentage points). The only decrease was in the South West (down 5 percentage points) (Table 2). Authorities made 82 per cent of all decisions within 13 weeks, 1 percentage point higher 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 January to March 2000 and in the year ending March 2000. The results for speed of decision are illustrated graphically in Chart 2; 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 2000, there were 31 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 16 authorities making fewer than 40 per cent of decisions within 8 weeks.

Responding Authorities for January to March 2000
Of the 362 district planning authorities, 345 provided figures in time for this publication (that is, 95 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.

A column at Table 7 shows the percentage of such decisions. Of the 341 authorities that provided information about delegated decisions in the first quarter of 2000, less than 2 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 345 authorities (95 per cent) were able to provide this information for the period January to March 2000. Of the planning decisions taken by these authorities, 1,065 (1 per cent) were advertised as departures from the development plan. New dwellings accounted for 38 per cent of departure decisions. An average of 64 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 January to March 2000, district planning authorities reported issuing 1,179 Enforcement Notices and served 1,258 Planning Contravention Notices, 356 Breach of Condition Notices and 39 Stop Notices. The High Court or County Court granted 8 Enforcement Injunctions and none was refused.

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 Act 1990, 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 2000, 1,286 Regulation 3 consents were reported granted and 136 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 first quarter of 2000, district planning authorities reported receiving 2,586 applications for determination whether local authority approval is required for certain works (Table 6). District planning authorities decided to intervene in 399 cases, i.e. 15 per cent of applications received, 1 percentage point more 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 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 first quarter of 2000, county planning authorities reported receiving 507 planning applications, 4 per cent less than in the corresponding quarter in 1999. County councils accounted for 82 per cent of total applications, metropolitan districts for 9 per cent and unitary authorities for 7 per cent (Table 8). Cornwall received the highest number of applications (45) (Table 11).

County planning authorities made 396 planning decisions in the quarter, 1 per cent lower than a year earlier. Of these, 90 per cent were granted, more than 1 percentage point higher than in the corresponding period in 1999. Waste developments accounted for 59 per cent of total decisions and minerals developments for 36 per cent (Table 9). Nottinghamshire reported the highest number of decisions (21) in the quarter (Table 11).

Speed of decision
In the first quarter of 2000, 13 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 1999. Authorities made 35 per cent of decisions within 13 weeks and 51 per cent within 17 weeks (Table 10).

Enforcement action
County planning authorities have provided statistics on formal enforcement action taken each quarter since April 1995.

In the period January to March 2000, county planning authorities issued 29 Enforcement Notices and served 12 Stop Notices, 39 Planning Contravention Notices and 19 Breach of Condition Notices (Table 12).

Responding authorities for January to March 2000
Of the 157 county planning authorities, 151 (96 per cent) provided figures in time for this publication.