Interim Chief Executive Graham Stallwood looks forward to working together across the planning sector in a busy and exciting 2026.
It feels like only yesterday we were raising a glass to 2026, yet here we are almost in February and fully immersed in the important work of the year ahead.
The planning world certainly doesn’t stop much for Christmas. In the first fortnight of the year alone, we had completed close to 800 site visits and public events.
One thing has changed though – as many of you know I recently took on the role of Interim Chief Executive.
If you’ll forgive one football reference, when a Premier League manager is promoted from within, pundits will inevitably trot out the line ‘they know the club’. Well, I'm a planner and I know the organisation – I've devoted my entire career to planning and public service, and I genuinely believe in the difference our work makes to the nation and individual communities across the country.
Looking ahead: our priorities for 2026
Having talked about how busy we are, you may quite rightly say, ‘when wasn’t the planning world busy and constantly evolving?’
This is shaping up to be a pivotal year. The local plans system is changing, the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 is now being implemented, a revised National Planning Policy Framework is under consultation, and a more streamlined approach to planning appeals will come into force soon. Further improvements to our digital services are coming.
And of course, the government's ambitious Plan for Change will keep us on our toes throughout the year and beyond.
Our focus will be on ensuring we have the expertise and resilience to influence and support these reforms, helping to make them a success for everyone who relies on the planning system.
Delivering on performance
Our latest performance statistics have just been published and we’re continuing to see real improvements in how we deliver.
We’re maintaining our high standards of decision making. We've made strong progress in clearing the ever-shrinking appeals backlog. At the end of December 2025, we had 9,939 cases open across all our casework, dipping below 10,000 for the first time since April 2020, and a significant reduction from 12,818 at the end of January 2025.
We’re also getting quicker as the average (median) decision time for all cases has been coming down over the last year.
The median decision time for appeal cases decided in December was just 18 weeks while the average over the past 12 months was 23 weeks.
Here's to 2026
So, yes, it’s a new year and the challenges keep on coming. What hasn’t changed is that we must meet those challenges working together across the planning system.
In her opening speech as Royal Town Planning Institute President last week, former Inspector Jan Bessell spoke of “planning with purpose”. It’s all about outcomes. And with delivery being at the heart of the changes coming to the planning system this year, I'm looking forward to engaging with you across the sector as we focus on delivery together.
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