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Successful planning application appeals down by 40% in two years
The number of successful planning application appeals has fallen by 40% in two years, government statistics have revealed.
Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show that, of the 3,637 major planning applications made from April to June 2017, just 59 were overturned at appeal.
By contrast, 106 of the 3,794 major applications made from July to September 2015 were overturned.
This was partly due to the number of decisions going to appeal in the first place reducing, as the success rate of appeals has remained roughly steady since 2017 at around 38%.
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Rachel Clements, associate director at planning consultancy Lichfields, told Inside Housing that the adoption of more local plans after the introduction of the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will have contributed to this change.
Local authorities are required to update their plans as the NPPF is updated in order that they remain compliant with the national policy.
Research in June by consultancy Savills found that 164 local authorities, or 51%, had adopted an NPPF-compliant plan, up from 132 at the same point in 2017.
Savills’ figures showed that the rate of local plan adoption has increased steadily in the past few years, with the numbers increasing more year-on-year in 2018 than they did in 2017.
Ms Clements said: “Considering the length of time it takes to prepare and submit an outline application for a large scheme, it is likely that we are starting to see the outcomes of this lag effect after the introduction of the NPPF and after the adoption of post NPPF local plans.
“Confidence in pursuing larger sites to a planning permission will often come with allocation in a local plan. Although we are still a long way off national local plan coverage (currently only at c.50%), more are being adopted and there is a current surge of local plan examinations, which will be allocating land for a whole range of major developments and providing confidence to land promoters and/or house builders to submit planning applications.”
James Mills, leader of West Oxfordshire District Council, which saw the biggest decrease, said: “We are pleased to have had a substantial increase in the success secured on appeals, which we believe has been through having a revised five-year housing supply position.
“It has enabled us to balance the need for more housing whilst at the same time protecting the special landscape and heritage of our district.”
Last week, research from Lichfields found that planning permissions for more than 6,000 homes have been granted after inspectors upheld appeals where councillors had rejected applications against officers’ advice.
It looked at 78 appeals in the UK in 2017 where applications for developments of at least 50 homes were rejected contrary to officers’ recommendations.
