Abstract/Summary

This report presents the main findings from a Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) early career research grant funded project on the subject of planning time and performance. The research was commissioned and joint funded by the RTPI and RTPI South-East region and conducted independently by the University of Reading. The research focussed on the use and impact of Extensions of Time (EoTs) in the planning determination process in England. The project forms part of a wider research agenda on the role of time in and for planning, being pursued at the University of Reading (see Dobson and Parker, 2024; Parker and Dobson, 2023; 2024; 2025).Extensions of time are typically negotiated to allow more time to determine a planning application beyond the statutory timescales. They have become a frequently used tool available to planners and applicants, but to date there has been limited research on EoTs. EoTs are used here as a lens to evaluate a range of internal and external issues that additional time is trying to bridge and ‘fix’, such as planning resourcing and complexity. This topic provides a window into the operation of the planning system more generally to assist in understanding why and how issues and challenges are produced and managed in practice. Time is the resource that often gets the least attention and, despite serial claims of ‘delay’, there is little detail on what time is being used for and why? This report considers a range of planning symptoms that EoTs are masking in the decision-making process.