The Northern Ireland Planning Statistics: 2024/25 Annual Statistical Bulletin, has been published today
Date published:
Planning statistics for the period April 2024 - March 2025 are now available. These data provide an overall view of planning activity.
Alongside this there is a summary of council performance across the three statutory targets, for major development applications, local development applications and enforcement as laid out in the Local Government (Performance Indicators and Standards) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015, along with other statistics of interest such as application approval rates.
The publication is available on the Department for Infrastructure website.
Key points:
The key points from the Northern Ireland Planning Statistics: 2024/25 Annual Statistical Bulletin are:
- There were 9,716 planning applications received during 2024/25; a 3% decrease from the previous year. This comprised of 9,554 local, 161 major and one regionally significant application.
- A total of 9,284 planning applications were decided during 2024/25; a decrease of 5% from the previous year. Decisions were issued on 9,112 local and 172 major applications during 2024/25.
- The average processing time for local applications brought to a decision or withdrawal during 2024/25 was 19.0 weeks across all councils. This exceeds the 15 week target and represents a decrease of 1.8 weeks from the previous year. Three of the 11 councils met the 15 week target in 2024/25.
- The average processing time for major applications brought to a decision or withdrawal during 2024/25 was 39.6 weeks across all councils; this is the lowest annual processing time since the transfer of planning powers. While exceeding the 30 week target, this represents a decrease of 6.9 weeks compared with the previous year. Five of the 11 councils met the 30 week target in 2024/25.
- Across councils 70.7% of enforcement cases were concluded within 39 weeks during 2024/25, meeting the 70% target. This represents a decrease from the rate recorded in 2023/24 (76.4%). Individually, six of the 11 councils met the 70% target in 2024/25; seven councils met the target in the previous year.
