§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about the time taken by local planning authorities in determining planning applications and by his Department in determining planning appeals.
§ Mr. Giles ShawThe steady and welcome improvement in the times taken by local planning authorities throughout 1980 continued in the last quarter of the year, when the proportion of applications determined within eight weeks rose to 68 per cent., an increase of 8 per cent. over the first quarter. Early indications are that this improvement has been maintained in the first quarter of this year.
The times taken by my Department to decide planning appeals continue to improve for all categories. The best improvement recorded was 19 per cent. for inspectors' written representation cases, which comprise three-quarters of the caseload, in the first quarter of this year over the average time last year.