Recent research has revealed a fall in the number of planning applications and permissions despite the drive to increase the housing stock.
From the three month period ending in September 2017, government figures show that planning applications in England were down 2% on the correspondent period in the previous year, recorded at 117,000.
The government figures also indicated that the number of decisions granted stood at 98,000 in quarter 3 of 2017; down by 3% compared to the same period in 2016.
However, the proportion of major planning application approvals saw an uplift last year – from 85% in quarter 3 of 2016, 2017’s figure stood at 88%.
In terms of residential applications, 12,000 were granted in the period from July to September last year, down 3% in comparison to quarter 3 of the previous year. From this total, 10,900 were for minor developments whilst the remaining 1,600 were designated for major developments.
The number of granted commercial applications were also down; standing at 2,600 in quarter 3 last year, this is a negative difference of 11% compared to 2016.
Quarter 3 of 2017 also saw 10,400 applications for prior approval for permitted development rights submitted, down 5% from the same quarter in the previous year. From this total, 1,500 were for changes to residential use, with 1,000 of these being approved without having had to go through the full planning process.
In the 12 month period ending in September last year, authorities at a district planning level granted 380,700 decisions, keeping in line with the total for the previous year.
49,700 decisions were granted on residential developments, with 43,100 of these being minor and 6,600 being major. Compared to the 12 month period ending in September 2016, these figures were up 2% and 6% respectively.
Looking at commercial developments, the annual figure was down by 6% last year, with a total of 10,500 applications being granted.
The full dataset can be found here.
