Development Management Performance Update - Fq1 2026/27
Argyll and Bute Council · 15 September 2026
Back to Planning, Protective Services and Licensing Committee — 15 September 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
ARGYLL AND BUTE COUNCIL PPSL COMMITTEE Development & Economic Growth 15th September 2026 Development Management Performance Update – FQ1 2026/27 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 This report provides an update on the performance of the Development Management Service for the reporting period FQ2 2026/27. 1.2 The attached document Appendix 1 provides an overview of the current demands upon the Development Management Service, its output during this period, the handling of the current backlog of casework, and the average time taken to determine planning applications. 2.0 RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1 It is recommended that PPSL: (a) Review and agree the content of the report. 3.0 DETAIL & BACKGROUND 3.1 The performance of the Council’s Development Management Service has been significantly impacted by the legacy effect of the Covid Pandemic upon interruption to workflow and a subsequent increase in demand for regulatory activity relating to new development. This situation has been exacerbated by the Service having previously been down-sized in response to the longer-term wider financial pressures facing the Council combined with a number of long-term vacancies that proved extremely difficult to fill as a result of a national shortage of planning professionals. The determination of planning applications has also been impacted by the uncertainty created by a changing planning policy backdrop with the Scottish Government’s adoption of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) in February 2023 with minimal transition arrangements having had a noticeable adverse impact on FQ4 2022/23 output as a result of a significant volume of casework requiring to be reassessed prior to its determination. The cumulative effect of these extraordinary pressures has given rise to a significant backlog of planning casework that continues to impact upon the ability of the Council to deliver the Development Management Service in an efficient and effective manner at this time, and impacts upon customer service. At FQ4 2022/23 the backlog of applications amounted to approximately 375 formal applications and 175 pre-application enquiries.
Page 2
3.2 An Improvement Action Plan (IAP) was prepared in early 2023 in response to the significant decrease in performance and wider issues impacting upon the resourcing of the service and its interactions with customers. The implementation of the IAP has ensured the delivery of additional capacity within the Development Management Service and along with this improvement initially in terms of output and more latterly improving trends are also now able to be identified in relation to the making of timely determinations. Building upon the foundation of the IAP, the Development Management Service Plan and Development Management Charter approved by PPSL on 18th September 2024 set out updated performance targets for the Service. These include a wider range of measures that seek to demonstrate the delivery of individual elements of the IAP and in addition to timeliness include measures which can be utilised to measure customer satisfaction, and staff welfare. The Improvement Action Plan has subsequently been incorporated into the Council's National Planning Improvement Framework report and is subject to annual review. 3.3 DEMAND: The Development Management Service receive approximately 2000 planning and related application case work items on an annual basis. The Development Management Service is resourced with the expectation that demand will be relatively constant and steady throughout the year. Whilst the volume of new submissions decreased by approximately 10% during 2020/21 they had returned to and exceeded pre-pandemic levels during 2021/22. Submission rates have subsequently been maintained at a high level and during 2022/23 were 5% up on pre-pandemic levels. Appendix 1, Sheet 1 shows that whilst submission rates continued to maintain previous levels of demand during FQ1 2026/27 with the overall volume of submissions increasing slightly from the previous reporting period. 3.4 CAPACITY: FQ1 2026/27 has seen continuing development of planning and enforcement officer posts in both the MAKI and BCHL teams which were filled earlier in 2026 with new staff continuing to settle into post. FQ1 has also seen the permanent appointment of Fiona Scott to the MAKI ATL post and the appointment of an additional agency member of staff to backfill capacity in OLI. Staff changes have proven to be particularly disruptive to workflow and additional capacity is continues to be provided within MAKI, and vacant posts in both OLI and the Major Application Team covered by agency staff. 3.5 Productivity during FQ1 has significantly improved and has largely addressed the backlog of work arising from significant technical issues with backoffice systems that arose during FQ3 2025/26 which were previously reported although clearing this older work has impacted upon average time measures which now reflect the delay to normal work flow during both FQ3 and FQ4 2025/26. 3.6 OUTPUT: FQ1 has seen a significant increase in output to the previous reporting period. (Appendix 1, Sheet 2). It is anticipated that increased levels of productivity will be sustained provided that a settled staffing position can also be maintained. It is however highlighted that recruitment issues will continue to cause some disruption to performance across the DM Service in the coming months. It is anticipated that vacant posts within OLI and Major Apps which are currently
Page 3
covered by agency staff will be subject to recruitment during FQ2/3 2026/27 with the aim of bringing permanent professional staff numbers back to full strength by the end of 2026. 3.7 Output during FQ1 has significantly outstripped the rate of new applications and is representative of a period of excellent productivity where there has been an exceptional effort to clear delayed casework from FQ3/FQ4 (Appendix 1, Sheet 3). The monitoring of ‘live’ casework has also identified a significant reduction in the number of ‘legacy’ cases which are older than 1 year from validation which remain ‘live’ and it is noted that these have increased from 95 to 75 items during FQ1 (Appendix 1, Sheet 5). 21 legacy items were determined during FQ1 with only 1 additional items becoming a legacy case and it is highlighted that this is also an indication of improvements to the overall timeliness of determining applications once the impact of ‘legacy’ cases has been taken into account. Resolution of ‘legacy’ cases remains a priority and it is the aim of the Service to reduce the number of ‘legacy’ applications to single figures. 3.8 PRE-APPLICATION ENQUIRIES: Demand for pre-application advice remains high. FQ1 has seen a slight deficit of pre-application casework being concluded when compared to the volume of new enquiries however output remains sufficiently aligned to demand and is not considered to be a cause for concern at this time (Appendix 1, Sheet 4). A commitment has been provided to review and improve the pre-application process, this will include the provision of enhanced information on the Council website to allow a greater proportion of customers to ‘self-serve’; development and roll out of a new pre-application service has been identified as a priority project. 3.9 ‘HOUSEHOLDER’ DEVELOPMENT: The performance of the Development Management Service is also measured in terms of the time taken to determine applications as it is recognised that failure to provide timely decisions can create uncertainty and be detrimental to the delivery of development across the Council area. Overall ‘time-taken’ measures have been skewed for sometime by the determination of a high volume of older ‘legacy’ applications that have accrued as part of the planning backlog. The increasing proportion of older applications being determined from FQ3 2022/23 onwards is identified in the bar graphs that provide a breakdown of application age within the average time measures (Appendix 1, Sheet 5 and Sheet 6) and demonstrate that ‘legacy’ applications have successfully been targeted for determination. During FQ1, one ‘legacy’ householder items was determined along with 2 older (6+ months) items which have had the effect of increasing overall average time measure by 2 weeks. 3.10 The previously reported issues arising from disruption to staff availability and technical issues during FQ3/FQ4 2025/26 continued to impact upon performance during FQ1 2026/27 to the underlying ‘householder’ average time measure (Appendix 1, Sheet 5) where the headline KPI has increased from 7.9 weeks in FQ2 2025/26 to 12.1 weeks in FQ4 2025/26. Removing the impact of ‘legacy’ and older cases, the effect of handling delayed casework is also evident with a reduction in underlying performance where the handling of newer items (<6 months from validation) has increased from 7.9 weeks in FQ2 2025/26 to 10.1
Page 4
weeks in FQ1 2026/27. Given the exceptional output during FQ1 it is anticipated that this position will improve during FQ2/3 as the impact of delays to workflow arising from FQ3 2025/26 become less of a factor. It is also highlighted that this position relates to ‘raw’ data and does not factor in delays which have arisen as a result of matters outwith the control of the Council, or applications that have been subject to processing agreements. Whilst the data sets are not directly comparable it is still helpful to reference the SG Returns as a benchmark. In this respect the latest available national average for householder applications at FQ2 2025/26 was 8.1 weeks with the benchmarked position for ABC being 6.9 weeks. 3.11 ‘LOCAL’ DEVELOPMENT: The determination of ‘legacy’ applications continued to have an adverse impact upon the average time taken measure applied to all other ‘local’ planning applications (Appendix 1, Sheet 6) where the determination of 20 ‘legacy’ applications during FQ1 cumulatively added 11.4 weeks to an average time measure that reports on the determination of 141 applications in total. During FQ1 86% of all other ‘local’ applications determined were less than 1 year old at the time of their determination and were determined in an average of 14.6 weeks (previously 87% in 18.5 weeks at FQ4 2025/26). 63% of the total were less than 6 months old and determined in 10.6 weeks on average (previously 72% in 10.9 weeks in FQ4 2025/26). Notwithstanding the high volume of ‘legacy’ items being determined, the average time taken to determine ‘all other local applications’ has reduced during FQ1 from 29.2 weeks to 25.0 weeks. It is again highlighted that this position relates to ‘raw’ data and does not factor in delays which have arisen as a result of matters outwith the control of the Council, or applications that have been subject to processing agreements. During FQ1 the Council determined a number of legacy applications which have impacted on the raw data relating to the average time period, including items that were delayed largely due to matters outwith the control of the Council. Whilst the data sets are not directly comparable it is still helpful to reference the SG Returns as a benchmark. In this respect the latest national average for local applications (excluding householder) at FQ2 2025/26 was 15.5 weeks with the benchmarked position for ABC being 20.5 weeks. 3.12 CONCLUSIONS: FQ1 has been a period of exceptional output which has largely addressed a backlog of applications arising in the latter part of 2025/26 resulting from technical issues outwith the control of the DM Service and has seen a significant reduction in the volume of ‘legacy’ applications. Whilst the determination of a significant body of delayed and ‘legacy’ casework has had a negative impact upon average time reporting measures it is appropriate to highlight the extraordinary effort by staff across the breadth of the DM Service to address delayed work items during FQ1. 3.13 The determination of extant ‘legacy’ items also continues to impact on ‘local’ application performance and will do so until such time as the remaining 75 items have been determined, and subject to appropriate resource availability and intervention to prevent new ‘legacy’ items from accruing. During FQ1, only 1 new ‘legacy’ item was accrued, this position is considered to be an early indicator of improving capacity and workflow within the wider DM Service.
Page 5
4.0 IMPLICATIONS 4.1 Policy None 4.2 Financial None 4.3 Legal None 4.4 HR None 4.5 Customer Service Requirement to manage customer expectations in the determination planning and related applications 4.6 Risk Failure to determine planning and related applications in efficient and effective manner would have potential to adversely impact upon the local economy, delivery of housing, and health and wellbeing of individuals. 4.7 Climate Change None 4.8 Fairer Scotland Duty 4.9 Equalities – Protected Characteristics None 4.10 Consumer Duty None 4.11 Island Communities None 4.12 Children’s Rights and Wellbeing None Executive Director with responsibility for Development and Economic Growth Policy Lead: Cllr Gordon Blair 4th September 2026 For further information contact: Peter Bain – 01546 604204 APPENDICES Appendix 1 – FQ1 2026/27 DM performance report