With official statistics released today showing the average time taken to process major housing developments at its slowest yet, Scotland’s home building industry pointed to the use of planning processing agreements to help councils accelerate decision-making.

Highlighting the major difference the agreements could make, the Scottish Government figures revealed an average decision time of almost 50 weeks for the 20 decisions made on major housing developments during quarter three (October to December) of 2014/15 – more than three times the 16 week statutory period for determination.

In comparison, of an additional nine major housing applications with processing agreements in place, eight of these met the agreed timescale set between the developer and local authority.

Homes for Scotland’s Head of Planning Strategy Blair Melville (right) commented:

“We share Communities Secretary Alex Neil’s concerns that some major housing applications are taking far too long.

“Whilst these figures represent a stark picture of decline within a critical area of investment, we remain committed to working with the Scottish Government to support the delivery of much needed new homes and are encouraged by recent meetings with officials in which areas of concern such as definition and interpretation of effective land supply, infrastructure constraints and planning delays have been recognised, and the urgency with which action is required noted.

“These statistics shine a light on the work which is still required in order to encourage and facilitate development, whilst the use of planning processing agreements may provide a useful tool to individual councils as a means of accelerating overall timescales.”