Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's document entitled Planning applications in England: April to June 2025 - statistical release, published on 18 September 2025, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the declines of (a) 5 per cent for planning permission applications compared to the same quarter last year, (b) 5 per cent in granted decisions compared to the year ending June 2024, and (c) 9 per cent in granted residential applications compared to the year ending June 2024.

The individual factors affecting changes in quarterly planning statistics are complex and difficult to disentangle.

My Department’s initial assessment is that a combination of structural, economic, and operational factors best explain the Q2 2025 results. These include a rise in financing costs, which particularly impacts SME developers, and capacity constraints within local planning authorities which affect decision-making timescales.

It should be noted that the planning statistics in question do not separately identify outline planning applications.

It is also the case that other data sources indicate a more positive position. For example, TerraQuest figures on residential planning applications outside of London suggest a 68% increase in the number of new homes included in residential applications in Q3 this calendar year.

The government expect that the changes made to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in December 2024, alongside other reforms to the planning system enacted since, will feed through into a higher level of planning applications and decisions.

In its March 2025 outlook, the OBR estimated that the revised NPPF alone would increase net additions by 170,000 over the forecast period 2024/25 to 2029/30, or 120,000 in the Parliament – delivering the highest level of UK housebuilding in 40 years.

Once it receives Royal Assent, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will further streamline planning processes, improve certainty for applicants, and unlock and accelerate more housing and infrastructure delivery.

Through our capacity and capability programme, we are giving local planning authorities the resources needed to provide a more efficient and responsive planning service, including in respect of making timelier decisions.