The Northern Ireland Planning Statistics: Third Quarter 2023/24 Statistical Bulletin, has been published today

Provisional planning statistics for the third quarter of 2023/24 are now available. These data provide an overall view of planning activity. Alongside this there is a summary of council performance across two of the statutory targets, for major development applications and local development applications as laid out in the Local Government (Performance Indicators and Standards) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015, along with other statistics of interest such as application approval rates.

The publication is available on the Department for Infrastructure website.

Key points:

The key points from the Northern Ireland Planning Statistics: Third Quarter 2023/24 Statistical Bulletin are:

• There were 2,525 planning applications received during the third quarter of 2023/24; an increase of six percent on the previous quarter and down by five percent on the same period a year earlier. This comprised of 2,487 local and 38 major applications.
• In the third quarter of 2023/24, 2,461 planning applications were decided, an increase of ten percent from the previous quarter and up by over five percent from the same period a year earlier. Decisions were issued on 2,420 local and 41 major applications during the most recent quarter.
• The average processing time for local applications brought to a decision or withdrawal during the first nine months of 2023/24 was 20.4 weeks across all councils. This exceeds the 15 week target and represents an increase of 2.4 weeks from the same period a year earlier. Three of the 11 councils were within the 15 week target after the first nine months of 2023/24.
• The average processing time for major applications brought to a decision or withdrawal during the first nine months of 2023/24 was 44.2 weeks across all councils. While exceeding the 30 week target, this represents a decrease of 16.2 weeks compared with the same period a year earlier.
• The number of enforcement cases concluded, and corresponding processing times are not presented in this report. This information will be published later, and users will be notified when available.

Notes to editors: 

1. This is the latest in a regular series of statistical bulletins related to Development Management (Planning) functions. The Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 sets out the legislative framework for development management and provides that, from 1 April 2015, councils now largely have responsibility for this planning function.  This statistical bulletin reports on activity and performance for the third quarter of 2023/24 (1 October 2023 – 31 December 2023). 
2. A new classification hierarchy for planning applications came into effect on 1 April 2014 in advance of the transfer of planning functions to local government from 1 April 2015. The development categories are – major and local development applications, processed primarily by councils, and regionally significant development applications, processed within the Department for Infrastructure. Note that the ‘major development’ category is based on a completely different definition to the previous ‘major’ category so figures relating to this category should not be compared with those from earlier bulletins (i.e. pre-2014/15).
3. There are two legislative performance targets covered in the report related to the processing of local development decisions within an average of 15 weeks; and major development decisions within an average of 30 weeks.
   The full suite of enforcement data is not yet available from the planning portal.  It is therefore not possible to report against the third legislative performance target - processing 70% of enforcement cases to target conclusion within 39 weeks. This information will be published when the full suite of enforcement data becomes available.
4. The final records of all applications from 1 April 2023 to 31 December 2023 were transferred in January 2024 from live databases and inspected for consistency in coding before figures were prepared for publication.  These figures are regarded as ‘provisional’ and will be subject to further scheduled revisions as further updates are made to records in the live database environments. Finalised annual figures for 2023/24 will be released in July 2024.
   Quarterly data are provided in more detailed accompanying data tables together with comparable data from the previous financial year, where possible. 
5. Following an independent assessment by the UK Statistics Authority, the NI Planning Statistics report received National Statistics accreditation in December 2020, demonstrating that it meets the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.
6. Electronic copies of the bulletin, associated data tables and summary infographic are available free of charge from the Department for Infrastructure website.
7. These statistics are accredited official statistics.  Accredited Official Statistics are official statistics that have been independently reviewed by Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and confirmed to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.  Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.
8. For more information relating to this publication, including additional analysis, breakdowns of data, or alternative formats please contact: Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch, Room 4.13c, Clarence Court, 10 - 18 Adelaide Street, Town Parks. BELFAST, BT2 8GB. Telephone:  (028) 9054 0390(Text relay prefix 18001) E-mail: asrb@nisra.gov.uk.
   Website: www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/topics/dfi-statistics-and-research. ASRB advise customers to make contact through email or by telephone at this time.
9. All media queries should be directed to the Department for Infrastructure Press Office at: press.office@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk.
10. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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