Decision details

The Committee considered a report with key planning performance indicators for the second quarter of 2024/25, as collected by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), planning service performance and the Planning Departmental Risk Register.

The KPI outturns were in line with MHCLG’s required performance levels for planning applications and continued to demonstrate an upward trend in improvement in the delivery of the planning service.

Work on reducing the backlog continued in Quarter 2, with a reduction from 49% of overdue cases in January to 17% as of 29 October 2024. The KPIs for all kinds of application were well above the required national targets. It was also noted that the validation timescales had substantially reduced since 2023.

Members paid tribute to the work of the Planning department in delivering improvements to the Planning service.

In response to a Member question, Officers confirmed there had been a reduction in the number of planning applications being submitted. The Development Management team were using this period to focus on continuing the backlog reduction and improving internal processes. These improvements and the new staff structure should enable the team to handle any increase in applications later on in the year. 

R E S O L V E D – that the Quarter 2 2024/2025 performance indicators and risks for the Planning Policy Committee be noted.