The Government is always keen to meet published targets. On the DCLG website (see web address at the foot of this posting), the Government announces that, last year, 100 per cent of decisions subject to statutory timetables which were made by the Secretary of State (on cases other than appeals under TPOs) were made within the statutory timetables set for them. In addition, 98.4 per cent of Secretary of State decisions on tree preservation order appeals were dealt with in time.
Of concern at present, however, is the growing number of local authorities who appear to be set on hitting application turn-around targets by granting planning permissions before relevant section 106 obligations have been agreed. Where this is happening, it can create great difficulties for those whose contracts are conditional upon the grant on the planning permission – it being normally assumed that any section 106 agreement would be a pre-requisite of the grant. This issue is to be covered in greater depth in the June 2008 edition of the CPI Update.
News item: http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/planning/decisionsplanning/secretarystate/actpapersannual/actpaper2007/