The figures covering the period for the financial year 2023/2024 show that, despite a 29% decrease in the volume of major housing applications decided, the average processing timeframe has increased from 39 to 60 weeks compared to the previous year. As a benchmark, the statutory timeframe for these decisions is 16 weeks.

The timeframes for deciding small, local housing applications follows a similar trend. With a 27% decrease in the number of applications decided in 2023 / 2024, the average processing timeframe has increased from 17 to 19 weeks against a statutory timeframe of eight weeks.

For HFS chief executive Jane Wood, compounding Scotland’s escalating housing emergency is the fact that none of the local authorities with declared local housing emergencies had average processing times within the statutory timeframes for either local or major housing applications.

Average decision making timeframes for major housing developments in local authorities with declared housing emergencies

Ms Wood said: “Today’s statistics are a crucial indicator of Scotland’s ability to tackle the national housing emergency across the short, medium and long term. With last month’s housing statistics highlighting consecutive declines in all-tenure starts and completions, today’s planning processing figures only confirm what the sector already knows: our planning system is poorly resourced and ill-equipped to deal with the policy implications of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) which is seeing land supply for new homes fall off a cliff.

“The Scottish Government must take urgent action to get Scotland’s planning system sorted with long-term sustainable funding and resourcing if we are to ensure that current and future generations have access to warm sustainable homes that meet their needs and that they can afford.

“With the next Scottish Budget under a month away, today’s statistics should prove a timely reminder to the Scottish Government of the consequences of cutting the Planning Budget by 43%, whilst also not ringfencing planning fees to support reinvestment into the planning service. If we are to get to grips with the housing emergency, it is essential that the Scottish Government restores funding to the planning system with a prioritisation on digitisation, and expands the capacity and focus of the much vaunted new Planning Hub at pace to include housing rather than just hydrogen development.

“It is therefore vital that the Minister for Public Finance Ivan McKee offers both clarity and certainty on how the planning system will be resourced and financed to support the delivery of new high-quality homes at pace in his statement to the Scottish Parliament on ‘Scotland’s Planning System – Supporting Investment and Economic Growth and Delivering Quality Homes’ tomorrow.”

Average decision making timeframes for local housing developments in local authorities with declared housing emergencies

Scottish Labour renewed its calls for planning reform following the newly-published figures.

The party’s housing spokesperson Mark Griffin said “These stark figures must be a wake-up call for the SNP government. Our country is in the grips of a housing emergency, but major housing developments are stuck in limbo for over a year waiting for a decision.

“Scotland’s overburdened and bureaucratic planning system is stifling economic growth and fuelling the housing emergency, while SNP cuts to Councils are piling on added pressure.

“Elsewhere in the UK, Labour is reforming planning in order to boost housebuilding and deliver growth.

“The SNP must show the same ambition for Scotland and set out plans for a more efficient planning system, as well delivering fair funding for local government next year.”