On foot of Circular Letter PD 1/08 of 26 February 2008, planning authorities were required, by the end of June 2008, to develop or update, as appropriate, their policy on taking in charge of residential developments on the basis of the framework, and wider housing and planning policy guidance, set out in the circular.
As part of the monitoring and review arrangements set out in the circular, each planning authority was advised to make available their policy on taking in charge to the public, to publish it on their website and to continue to report on it to the elected members on a regular basis and at least once annually. Planning authorities were not requested to report on their response to the policy advice to my Department; accordingly, the information requested is not available in my Department.
However, a new local government service indicator in relation to the taking in charge of estates has been introduced, and will provide benchmark data from 2009 onwards for monitoring the taking in charge process. The information to be reported will include:
the number of requests for taking in charge of estates on hands at the start of the year in question;
the number of estates that were taken in charge in the year in question;
the total number of dwellings in these estates; and
the number of estates in respect of which enforcement action was taken or remedial works were carried out in the year in question.