Improvement In Planning Application Decision Times – 2013/14

The Scottish Government has published Annual Planning Performance Statistics for the year 2013/14. The report details average performance across Scotland's 32 local authorities and 2 national park authorities. Here are a few of the headline national figures from the past year:

• 30,026 local development applications were determined with an average decision time of 10.6 weeks. This is 6 days quicker than 2012/13 when 29,332 applications were determined.

• 309 major development applications were determined with an average decision time of 34.6 weeks. This is 12 days quicker than in 2012/13 when 238 applications were determined. Amongst the overall statistics were some very encouraging figures. The number of applications for major residential developments increased by 50% to 116 in 2013/14 and there was a marked reduction in processing times to around 26 weeks, a full 8 weeks faster than in 2012/13