Planning Inspectorate Performance update – January 2025
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-23)

Performance and other updates following the publication of our latest official monthly statistics.

Every three months, we publish the latest official statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planning-inspectorate-statistical-release-23-january-2025) on appeals performance, which represent the greatest volume (in terms of number of cases) of the work of the Planning Inspectorate.

We also update the appeals handling times (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/appeals-average-timescales-for-arranging-inquiries-and-hearings) data to give customers the latest information on the average time it takes to receive a decision and provide an update on our other main casework areas.

Appeals

Our appeal cases are dealt with in one of three ways: written representations, hearings, or inquiries. Ministerial performance measures include an expectation to reduce average decision times over time and make our decision speeds more consistent. All our decision times are measured from the day we receive a valid appeal through to the day we issue a decision. This is the same approach as Local Planning Authorities.

We have made 18,034 appeal decisions in the last 12 months up to the end of December 2024, an average of 1,503 per month. We now have 12,915 open cases, a reduction of 894 since December 2023 and 1447 since December 2022.

For most of the last 12 months we have closed more cases than we received, including in December 2024 when we received 1,459 and closed 1,585.

We remain committed to removing our casework backlog so that all our casework is decided in consistent timeframes, whilst maintaining high standards in our decisions. We are currently focusing on reducing the number of older planning appeals by written representations appeals and enforcement appeals by hearing. In the Spring we will start to focus on reducing the number of open enforcement appeals by written representations.

Median decision times

The median decision time for cases decided over the past 12 months was 27 weeks.

Median decision times vary a little month to month, but decisions after hearings and inquiries continue to be made quicker, on average, compared to a year ago.

We are deciding high number of enforcement appeals by hearing at the moment, including many older appeals. This is why those decision times are currently higher than normal.

National Infrastructure

We have a high number of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) (https://national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/) at various stages, but we continue to meet all statutory deadlines:
- 64 where we are providing advice before submission.
- 20 submitted and at acceptance, pre-examination, or examination.
- 3 where we are preparing our recommendation.
- 12 where the relevant Secretary of State is considering our recommendation.
In December, the the Rivenhall IWMF and Energy Centre (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rivenhall-iwmf-and-energy-centre-development-consent-decision-announced) application was granted development consent by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero following an examination by the Planning Inspectorate.

Local Plans

There are currently 59 live Local Plan examinations in progress.

We encourage Local Planning Authorities (LPA) to use our advisory visits to help them get their plans in good shape and deal with challenges well before submission.

At the start of each month on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/3730853/admin/page-posts/published/) we publish a list of the upcoming Local Plan hearings and a map of the NSIP applications currently in progress around the country.