District planning authorities in England received 501 environmental statements in the 12 months to the end of March 2015, nearly 14% more than the number submitted in 2013/14 and 56% up on 2011/12.
The figures, published by the department for communities and local government (Dclg), are further evidence of an upturn in development in England.
They also reveal that only a very small proportion of planning applications include an environmental impact assessment. Planning authorities received 473,866 planning applications between April 2014 and the end of March 2015. Environmental statements were submitted for just 0.1%.
The figures for the five types of district planning authorities were:
- Shire district authorities received 223 environmental statements. The most were submitted to Allerdale in Cumbria, which received 10 out of 812 applications, Northampton (eight out of 1,103) and Ryedale in north Yorkshire (eight out of 634).
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Eighty environmental statements were submitted to London boroughs. The 32 boroughs received 92,969 planning applications. Tower Hamlets and Barnet received the most statements – 21 (out of 1,710) and
13 (3,906) respectively. - Metropolitan boroughs received 43 environmental statements out of 58,071 applications, with Manchester receiving the most – nine out of 2,238.
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Unitary authorities received 145 statements, with Cornwall receiving 15 and the East Riding of Yorkshire 12. Overall, the 56 unitary
authorities in England received 96,001 planning submissions. - The national parks authorities received 10 statements, four of these for the South Downs. A total of 7,984 planning applications were made to park authorities in 2014/15.
