Publication of Northern Ireland Planning Statistics: 2015/16 Annual Statistical Bulletin

Date published: 30 June 2016

Alongside this there is a summary of council progress across the three statutory targets for major development applications, local development applications and enforcement cases as laid out in the Local Government (Performance Indicators and Standards) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015.

The publication is available on the ASRB website at:

• www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/publications/northern-ireland-planning-statistics-april-2015-march-2016

Key points

• There were 12,220 planning applications received in Northern Ireland (NI) during 2015/16, a decrease of 5.0% over the previous financial year. This comprised 12,069 local development, 145 major development and six regionally significant development applications.
• During 2015/16, 11,034 planning applications were decided, down 5.3% on the previous year and 63.4% below the peak level of 30,161 recorded in 2005/06 before the economic downturn.
• In 2015/16, the average processing time for major development applications across all councils was 46.4 weeks, over sixteen weeks longer than the statutory processing time target of 30 weeks. Average processing times ranged from 28.2 weeks in Antrim and Newtownabbey to 70.2 weeks in Fermanagh and Omagh. Antrim and Newtownabbey was the only council to meet the statutory target.
• The number of local planning applications received in NI during 2015/16 was 12,069, an average of just over 3,000 applications each quarter. Belfast City (1,557), Newry, Mourne and Down (1,423) and Mid Ulster (1,371) received the highest number of local planning applications.
• In NI, across councils it took on average 19.4 weeks to process local applications to decision or withdrawal in 2015/16, over four weeks longer than the statutory target. The shortest average processing time was 14.0 weeks in Antrim and Newtownabbey whilst the longest was 34.8 weeks in Newry, Mourne and Down. Three of the 11 councils, namely Antrim and Newtownabbey (14.0), Fermanagh and Omagh (14.4) and Mid and East Antrim (14.4) were within the 15 week target whilst Mid-Ulster was just a little above it at 15.2 weeks.
• The number of enforcement cases opened in Northern Ireland during 2015/16 was 2,914, an increase of 15.8% compared to a year earlier. This is the highest number of enforcement cases opened in any year since 2010/11 when 3,117 cases were opened. Belfast City (406) and Ards and North Down (338) opened the largest number of cases in 2015/16.
• Nine of the eleven councils met the statutory enforcement case target to process 70% of cases to conclusion within 39 weeks of complaint with a high of 85.9% concluded within 39 weeks in Mid and East Antrim followed by Antrim and Newtownabbey (84.2%). Newry, Mourne and Down (54.1%) and Fermanagh and Omagh (63.8%) did not meet the target although the performance of the latter did improve in the second half of the year.
• The overall Northern Ireland approval rate for all planning applications for 2015/16 was 93.7%, an increase of half a percentage point over the year from 93.2% in 2014/15. Over the last four years, the approval rate of planning applications in NI has been fairly stable. Annual planning approval rates varied across councils from highs of 96.7% in both Derry City and Strabane and Mid Ulster down to 90.8% in Newry Mourne and Down.
• In 2015/16, renewable energy applications received fell by 38.6% when compared to the previous year and were down by three fifths when compared to 2011/12. More than seven out of every ten renewable energy applications received in 2015/16 were for single wind turbines. Although single wind turbines continue to dominate renewable energy applications, over the last year applications have decreased by a very sizeable 41.8%.