Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report on Planning Compliance Performance - Quarterly Update. This was the latest quarter report (Quarter 3, 2025/26).

The Stockton on Tees Local Enforcement Plan (LEP) was approved at planning committee in September 2024 and became live on the 1 November 2024 and this report provided the latest quarterly report.

As part of the LEP, service targets were introduced which were;

70% of enforcement cases closed where no breach identified within 20 working days.

60% of enforcement requests receiving an initial response, for example no breach of control identified or further investigation to be undertaken, within 10 working days.

60% of planning enforcement cases, where the case actions were determined within the established priority timescales.

Details of current performance and trends were contained within the officers’ report, such as annual comparatives in caseloads and performance as well as a snapshot of last quarter’s performance.

The last three years caseloads had increased year on year, with the last year 2025 being the highest in recent records and a 36% increase on year end in 2024 and a 49% increase on 2023. The nature of the caseload as well as the total number of cases continued to be monitored to ensure resources remained adequate.

Despite the increase in new allegations being received , the numbers of open cases were consistent with those open cases at the end of 2024, with the average number of days to process such cases reducing from 353 days to 132 days. With the variance from that figure and the average ‘closed case’ periods reported on a quarterly basis following the introduction of the LEP, being due to historic cases being closed alongside new ones.

The total number of served enforcement notices over the past two years (20) had also quadrupled since 2020-23 (5).

In terms of quarter 3 2025/2026, performance against the internal performance standards continued to remain high with the relevant thresholds being exceeded in all cases, and overall 97% of all the number of cases in the last quarter had had case actions determined within the identified priority period.

Over the last quarter the number of cases received had dropped slightly, although there continued to be year on year increases in cases reported.

Notwithstanding that, the overall time to process cases had marginally increased, although the average turnaround period remained comparable to those across the year so far.

Two cases from the previous quarter where there had been no compliance with an enforcement notice, had seen landowners begin to rectify works and the planning service team continued to discuss a case of non-compliance with colleagues in legal services over appropriate next steps.

Currently the total number of unresolved compliance cases equated to 181, with 47 cases being historic cases received before the introduction of the Local Enforcement Plan.

The next quarterly update of the ‘Planning Compliance Performance Report’ would be quarter 4 of 2025/26 (January - March), which was anticipated being reported in April/May 2026.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.