Communities and Local Government

• Planning, building and the environment
• Planning applications April to June 2002

Planning, building and the environment

Planning applications April to June 2002

District Planning Authorities

Planning applications

In the second quarter of 2002, district planning authorities in England received 158 thousand applications for planning permission and other related consents. This is the largest number received since 1989 and is 6 per cent higher than in the corresponding period last year (Table 1).

The number of applications received increased in all regions. The largest increase was in the North East (12 per cent) and the smallest increases were in the South East and East of England (under 3 per cent) (Map 1).

Planning decisions

District planning authorities made 147 thousand planning decisions in the second quarter of 2002, 8 per cent higher than a year earlier. This is the largest number decided in the April to June quarter since 1989.

All regions saw an increase in the number of decisions. The largest were in the North East and in the North West (up 15 and 14 per cent respectively). The smallest increase was in London (up 3 per cent) (Table 2, Map 2).

Once again, the increase in the number of planning decisions is largely due to decisions on householder applications, increasing from 68,000 in April to June 2001 to 79,000 in April to June 2002. Householder decisions account for half of all decisions. The number of decisions relating to new dwellings has increased from 13,700 to 15,100 and accounts for 10 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 from April 1992 to June 2002.

Applications granted

87 per cent of decisions were granted in the second 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). Approval rates across the regions ranged from 93 per cent in the North East to 80 per cent in London (Table 2).

Speed of decision

Because of seasonal variation, quarterly figures should be compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year. In the second quarter of 2002, 68 per cent of all planning decisions were made within the statutory 8 week period, 3 percentage points higher than a year ago (Table 1). For the year ending June 2002, 68 per cent of decisions were made within 8 weeks.

In April to June 2002, decisions were made quickest in the North West, North East, West Midlands and South East (70 per cent within 8 weeks). Decisions were slowest in London and Yorkshire and the Humber (65 per cent within 8 weeks) (Table 2). The best improvements in performance were in the South West, the South East and in London, each up 4 percentage points on last year.

Authorities made 86 per cent of all decisions within 13 weeks in April to June 2002 compared with 85 per cent in the same quarter last year. For the year ending June 2002, 84 per cent were decided within 13 weeks.

Table 7 shows the number of applications decided, the percentage granted and speed of decision in the year and quarter ending June 2002 for each district planning authority. The results for speed of decision are illustrated graphically in Chart 2a, 2b and 2c; these 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 April to June 2002, there were 58 authorities (16 per cent of all those responding authorities) making 80 per cent or more of their decisions within the statutory 8 week period and 8 authorities making fewer than 40 per cent of decisions within 8 weeks.

Responding Authorities for April to June 2002

Of the 362 district planning authorities, 360 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 shows the percentage of such decisions. Of the 355 authorities that provided information about delegated decisions in the second quarter of 2002, only 3 authorities had 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 357 authorities (99 per cent) were able to provide this information for April to June 2002. Of the planning decisions taken by these authorities, 982 (about 1/2 per cent) were advertised as departures from the development plan. New dwellings accounted for 44 per cent of departure decisions. An average of 54 per cent of departure applications were granted, compared with 87 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 April to June 2002, district planning authorities reported issuing 1,100 Enforcement Notices and served 890 Planning Contravention Notices, 265 Breach of Condition Notices and 46 Stop Notices. The High Court or County Court granted 13 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 second quarter of 2002, 1,220 Regulation 3 consents were reported granted and 80 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 April to June 2002, district planning authorities reported receiving 2,239 applications for determination whether local authority approval is required for certain works (Table 6). They decided to intervene in 404 cases. This is 18 per cent of applications, less than in the same quarter of the previous year.

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 second quarter of 2002, county planning authorities reported receiving 464 planning applications, 8 per cent higher than for the same quarter last year. County councils accounted for 83 per cent of total applications, unitary authorities for 8 per cent and metropolitan districts for 8 per cent (Table 9). Lancashire received the highest number this quarter (36), followed by Cornwall (27), Norfolk (22), and Hampshire (20) (Table 12).

County planning authorities reported 396 planning decisions in the quarter, 5 per cent less than last year. Of these, 90 per cent were granted, the same percentage in the corresponding period in 2001. Waste developments accounted for 64 per cent of total decisions and minerals developments for 32 per cent (Table 10). North Yorkshire reported 19 decisions, the highest number in the quarter, followed by Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Essex and Lincolnshire with 16 decisions each (Table 12).

Table 12 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 and Lancashire (56), North Yorkshire (50) Devon (45) and Norfolk (44). 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 April to June 2002, the highest number of decisions was reported by Leicestershire (62). The number of determinations under the review of mineral planning permissions (ROMPs) was also collected. Eight authorities recorded determinations and one authority, Hereforshire, recorded 4 determinations this quarter.

Speed of decision

In the second quarter of 2002, 16 per cent of all decisions on 'county matters' applications were made within the statutory 8 week period, 1 percentage point lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2001. Authorities made 42 per cent of decisions within 13 weeks and 57 per cent within 17 weeks (Table 11).

Enforcement action

In April to June 2002, county planning authorities issued 23 Enforcement Notices and served 6 Stop Notices, 25 Planning Contravention Notices and 6 Breach of Condition Notices. (Table 13).

Responding authorities for April to June 2002

Of the 157 county planning authorities, 154 (98 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. For this edition, the usual "county matters" Tables 8 to 12 have been renumbered Tables 9 to 13, and a new Table 8 inserted to facilitate monitoring of the 2002/03 Best Value Performance Indicator.

9. 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.

10. 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 6th September 2002. These will include estimates for non-responding authorities. Figures received by 13th September have been included in Tables 4 to 6, Tables 9 to 13 and Chart 2. Figures received from planning authorities after that date have been included in Tables 7 and 8 where this was possible within the publication schedule.

11. The reorganisation of local government in England has necessitated a change in the presentation of statistics for local authority areas. In Table 2 where data are presented by 'type of authority' in Table 2, figures for unitary authorities are included in the category 'non-metropolitan districts'. Figures for unitary authorities are shown in Table 7 within the former county structure. In Tables 9 to 12 (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. Figures for the Standard Statistical Regions are available on request from the Planning and Land Use Statistics Division, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 3/K9, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU. Email plus@communities.gov.uk Tel. 020-7944 5502 Fax. 020-7944 5519.

13. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs.

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