South Tyneside planning function put in special measures

The council has been issued with a notice of designation for under-performance over two years, meaning the loss of some powers to planning inspectors.

A local planning authority (LPA) can be designated if the secretary of state considers there are respects in which it is not adequately performing its function of determining applications.

A designation effectively means that developers seeking planning permission for certain schemes can bypass the LPA and go directly to the Planning Inspectorate seeking determination.

The system has been introduced in recent years as government has sought to increase efficiency and streamline planning.

Chorley Council, in Lancashire, was among the first to be censured for the under-performance of its planning department, being issued with a notice of designation in 2023 – the council was then de-designated last year.

South Tyneside is one of nine councils to be censured this week.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government said that the decision is “part of a deliberate shift towards tougher national oversight of the planning system, with Ministers prepared to intervene where councils are not meeting expectations and hold them accountable for performance. It sends a clear signal that failure to deliver will no longer be tolerated”.

MHCLG believes that there is a “strong track record that this works” highlighting the turnaround undertaken by Uttlesford Council in Essex.

LPAs are at risk of designation if more than 10% of decisions are allowed at appeal. South Tyneside’s figure for the period under consideration – the two years to the end of March 2025 for planning decisions, and appeals running to the end of last year – was 13.6%.

The performance of LPAs in determining major and non-major development applications can be assessed separately, and it is on major applications that South Tyneside’s performance has fallen short.

LPAs are judged both on the speed with which they deal with applications, ie the proportion of proposals that are either dealt with in the statutory time period, or an agreed extended period; and on the quality of decisions they make, calculated by measuring the proportion of decisions later overturned at appeal.

In response, South Tyneside Council pointed to its strong record over the long-term and on non-major applications in general.

A spokesperson for the local authority said: “We acknowledge the Government’s decision to designate the authority under Section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in relation to major development applications.

“However, it is important to note that this designation is based on a specific assessment period and does not reflect our overall long-term performance, which was well below designation level both in the two years prior to the assessment period and in the subsequent period to date. Furthermore, the Council continues to perform strongly in terms of speed of decision-making and quality of decision-making on non-major applications.

“This demonstrates that our performance has been strong both before and since the assessment period, and that the data behind the Government’s designation decision relates only to a very small number of cases where a limited number of appeal decisions had a disproportionate impact in terms of our quality of decision-making on major planning applications.

“However, we take this matter seriously, recognising the importance of strong and consistent planning decisions in supporting new homes, jobs and investment and are now focused on next steps. We are already developing our action plan and will work closely with Government and the Planning Advisory Service to ensure the designation can be lifted as soon as possible.”

Censuring the nine LPAs follows fresh government data on planning applications that shows only 261,700 decisions were granted in 2025, a 4% fall year-on-year.

MHCLG said that designations will remain in place until ministers are convinced that councils can turn around their poor performance and demonstrate they can make quality planning decisions.

Signed by housing minister Matthew Pennycook, the designations is in force as of yesterday, until the notice is revoked.