Figures show COVID impact on planning applications
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact on Scottish planning authorities in 2021-22, leading to longer average decision times, according to figures published today by the Scottish Government.
The Annual Planning Performance Statistics 2021-22 highlight that restrictions on travel and site access, staff absence and resource issues affected the processing of applications.
More local development applications were decided in 2021-22 (28,596) than before the pandemic (26,585 in 2019-20). This followed a dip in 2020-21, when the main pandemic restrictions took effect. However, the proportion decided within two months fell to 62% (74% in 2019-20.) Some authorities made more use of agreements of timescales to process local applications.
Major development applications, at 285 in 2021-22, were slightly lower than the 307 in 2019-20, though up on the 272 in 2020-21. The average decision time for applications without processing agreement was 44.6 weeks, compared with 33.5 weeks in 2019-20, though the average decision time for major business and industry applications was slightly shorter than in 2019-20.
The delegation rate, measuring the proportion of decisions made by appointed officers, was 96.5%, continuing the slight increase shown in recent years; and the approval rate (94.3%) remained at around the 94% level where it has been for many years.
Local review bodies dealt with 481 cases in 2021-22, upholding the original decision in 53% of cases; and there were 278 appeals to Scottish ministers, with 51% having the original decision upheld.