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Planning performance statistics
01/02/2011
Updated statistics on planning performance in Scotland have been released today by Scotland's Chief Statistician.
The main findings are:
- The percentage of local applications decided within two months was 67.5 per cent in the period July - September 2010, an increase from 67.1 per cent for April - June 2010. The percentage of major applications decided on under four months increased to 38.7 per cent in the period July - September 2010, up from 32.0 per cent in the period April - June 2010.
- The number of planning applications decided by Scotland's planning authorities in this three-month period was 11,447, an increase from 11,217 between April - June 2010. 11,880 applications were received during the period.
- The approval rate of all applications from July to September 2010 was 93.8 per cent, a slight increase when compared to the previous quarter (93.1 per cent).
From April 2010, the planning performance statistics were collected on a quarterly basis. Prior to this, these statistics were collected annually.
As part of modernising planning the main legislative changes to Development Management, including planning application procedures, enforcement, planning appeal procedures and new local review procedures took effect from 3rd August 2009. The Planning authority performance data returns were revised to align these returns with the new planning system. The return has a greater emphasis on the hierarchy of developments, and thresholds to distinguish between major and local developments have been revised. As such, performance data prior to 3rd August 2009 is not comparable with that after 3rd August 2009, except at an aggregate level. Comparisons in this publication are therefore made only to planning applications decided in 2009/10 on the 3rd August or later.
Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.