The latest planning statistics from the Scottish Government (SG) show that local development applications have been processed more quickly in the most recent quarter, whilst major development processing has slowed.
The Scottish Government writes:
Latest quarterly statistics show faster average decision times for local developments but slower average decision times for major developments compared to the previous quarter and previous year. Statistics on quarterly planning performance in Scotland have been released today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician.
In quarter one (April to June) of 2016/17 there were 7,329 decisions made on local developments with an average decision time of 8.9 weeks. This was almost one and a half weeks quicker than the previous quarter (10.3 weeks), five days faster than the equivalent quarter in 2015/16 (9.6 weeks), and the quickest average decision time since the start of this data collection in quarter one of 2012/13.
For the 61 decisions made on major developments the average decision time was 39.3 weeks. This was 13 weeks slower than the previous quarter (26.3 weeks) and more than five weeks slower than the equivalent quarter in 2015/16 (34.2 weeks).
The average time figures quoted in this Statistical News Release exclude any applications concluded through the use of a processing agreement between the developer and the local authority, where an agreement on timescales for decisions can be made either at the beginning of the application process or at a later stage.
