
Everyone complains about how slow and cumbersome securing planning permission for new homes has become.
With the poor quality of our planning data, however, it has been difficult to quantify how slow the process is.
This research paper attempts to fill that data gap.
PropTech company Searchland, provided us with a dataset covering around 132,000 planning applications for ten or more homes, dating back fifteen years to 2010.
That allowed us to see how determination timescales have changed over that period for applications of different types - outline, full and reserved matters - and of different sizes. We were even able to explore the difference in decision speeds for applications decide at planning committee compared to those decided by officers under delegated powers.
The results are striking.
Download the research paper to read them.