HC Deb 17 February 1988 vol 127 c669W
57. Mr. Simon Burns

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is satisfied with the performance of local authorities in dealing with planning applications.

Mr. Waldegrave

No. I believe that local authorities should be able to deal with at least 80 per cent. of planning applications within eight weeks of receiving them. On 1 February we published figures which showed that in the three months January-March 1987 41 authorities achieved that, but on average during that quarter English local authorities decided only 59 per cent. of applications within eight weeks. I hope that all local authorities will examine their procedures for handling planning applications and introduce improvements where appropriate, to make the system work more efficiently.