LPA tortoises and hares in speed of deciding planning applications
Government figures for each LPA were published recently, with misleading “extensions of time” removed from the timescales to give more honest results. The latest figures here show enormous variation between local planning authorities.
Is your LPA speeding up or slowing down?
Some LPAs have had fantastic spurts of speed, while others have become even slower than before. For the full picture see our table of planning performance change over time.
Biggest changes in performance
Anyone familiar with the fable of the tortoise and the hare will recall it was the tortoise who won the race in the end. Beware LPAs who have improved their timescales on householder applications whilst slowing down on major applications (or vice versa). The best and worst changes in speed for major, non-major and householder applications are shown in the table below.
| Percentage MAJOR devts decided within 13 weeks excluding extensions of time |
year ending Sept 2023 | year ending June 2024 | change over Sept 23 to June 24 |
| Average for England | 19% | 20% | +1 |
| Biggest improvement – joint 1st place: | |||
| Harlow | 11% | 39% | +28 |
| Maidstone | 17% | 45% | +28 |
| Sevenoaks | 17% | 45% | +28 |
| Watford | 22% | 50% | +28 |
| Biggest slow-down: New Forest | 39% | 8% | -31 |
| Percentage NON-MAJOR developments decided within 8 weeks** | year ending Sept 2023 | year ending June 2024 | change over Sept 2023 to June 2024 |
| Average for England | 37% | 39% | +2 |
| Biggest improvement: Castle Point | 28% | 59% | +31 |
| Biggest slow-down: Canterbury | 44% | 22% | -22 |
| Percentage HOUSEHOLDER devts decided within 8 weeks | year ending Sept 2023 | year ending June 2024 | change over Sept 23 to June 24 |
| Average for England | 56% | 61% | +5 |
| Biggest improvement: Hyndburn | 25% | 71% | +46 |
| Biggest slow-down: Tonbridge & Maling | 74% | 38% | -36 |
* For fairness, excluding LPAs with only 1 major application in the year (Isles of Scilly and Oadby & Wigston)
** excluding Development Corporations (which generally showed big improvements between 2023 and 2024) because these only have a very small number of applications
