Blockers and Approvers: Rates of Delegation and Approval for Planning Applications

The Government recently published Planning Statistics for the year to March 2025. For the 32 London boroughs, the statistics showed some interesting features.

First, they showed that all but three boroughs – Camden, Ealing and Harrow delegated decisions to officers on 90% or more of the applications they received; and that 19 of them delegated decisions on more than 98% of applications. Two boroughs – Enfield and Redbridge – delegated decisions on nearly 100% of applications.

Second, rates of approval varied much more widely, from an outlier of 64% in Hounslow, to 98% in neighbouring Hammersmith and Fulham. Rates of approval can vary for many different reasons, of course, good and bad. They depend crucially on the nature and the numbers of applications each borough receives and on the widely-varying characteristics of each local area. But it is worth noting that 26 of the 32 boroughs showed rates between 70% and 89%, and five boroughs showed rates of over 90%.

But perhaps the most notable finding is that there is no correlation at all between boroughs with high rates of delegation, and their rates of approval; or indeed vice versa. Hounslow, with by far the lowest rate of approvals, delegated 99% of its decisions to officers. Southwark, on the other hand, with the fourth lowest delegation rate at 90%, had the fourth highest rate of approval at 92%.

The Government proposes – under the wholly false heading of a ‘national scheme of delegation’ – to ban local planning committees from considering all ‘minor’ applications, even in conservation areas. This is clearly based on the assumption that planning committees block too many applications. The statistics clearly show, however, that such an assumption is simply wrong. The evidence shows that Southwark’s Planning Committee, working with its officers, achieved the fourth highest approval rate in London; whereas in Hounslow, it is the officers who must bear the responsibility, rightly or wrongly, for blocking over a third of all the applications that are submitted to them.

The relevant statistics are in the table below