Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average time taken was between receipt and decision for a planning appeal to be considered by the Planning Inspectorate in the most recent period for which figures are available; and what that time was in each of the last five years.

There are different procedures for determining planning appeals according to the nature and detail of the individual case. In some cases the approach can change during the course of consideration of the specific appeal, eg it could start off as a Written Representation and then change to an Inquiry. This all depends on the documentation submitted and the criteria it fulfils. A change in the approach may involve starting afresh with the new procedure which will impact on the timetable of the appeal

The attached table shows, for the three different procedures, the average time taken, in weeks, to make decisions on planning appeals decided in each year since 2006-07, according to the procedure under which the appeal decision was taken.