In the latest figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, it was revealed 81,600 planning applications were made, down 7% from 2023.

During this period, 79,800 decisions were made, also 7% lower than the same quarter in 2023.

Though the majority of these - 69,200 or 87% - were granted, this is only 1% more than in the same period in 2023.

The Labour government has been highly vocal in how important planning reform is to meeting its 1.5 million housing delivery target, adopting a state intervention policy when local decisions are delayed.

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In addition, the government also wants decisions made faster. During the third quarter of 2024, 90% of major applications were decided upon within the statutory period 13 weeks.

However, this was down 1% from the same quarter in 2023.

The government has particularly been vocal about the need for local authorities to play a more active role in combatting planning permission backlogs.

In the year to September 2024, district level planning authorities granted 275,600 decisions which was 9% lower than the previous year.

In terms of residential applications, 31,000 of these were granted which was 7% lower than 2023.