Newly released statistics have revealed an improvement in planning decision times.

According to Scotland's Chief Statistician, the average decision time for a local development in 2013/14 was 10.6 weeks, almost six days quicker than the previous year (11.4 weeks).

For the year 2013/14, the average decision time for a local development planning application was 10.6 weeks. For the fourth quarter, January to March 2014, the average decision time was 10.5 weeks, down from the previous quarter (10.7 weeks). It was also down by 10 days on the same quarter in the previous year (11.9 weeks).

Looking at major developments, the average decision time for 2013/14 was 34.6 weeks, down from 36.3 weeks the previous year. For the fourth quarter, the decision time was 35.2 weeks, down from the previous quarter (36.2 weeks), and it was also a fall of nine days on the same quarter the previous year (36.6 weeks).


During 2013/14, there were a total of 13,904 local householder applications decided, a rise of 3.4% on the previous year (13,446). The average decision time for a householder application was 7.7 weeks. Meanwhile, the number of local housing applications decided increased by 3.6% to 5,762, with the average decision time for these applications being 15.2 weeks.

There were 2,370 local business and industry applications decided during 2013/14, a fall of 6.4% on the previous year. Again, there was an improvement in the decision time, with the average wait now 11.1 weeks.

Elsewhere, the number of major housing applications decided increased by over 50% to 116, while there were 105 'other' major development applications, such as retail and tourism.

The overall rate of approvals for all types of application for the year 2013/14 was 94.1% – the highest approval rate since 2010/11.

(JP/CD)