The Planning Inspectorate have commissioned annual customer satisfaction surveys, and each survey has dealt separately with an area of the inspectorate's business such as planning appeals, development plan inquiries or rights of way orders. In 2002 the Inspectorate commissioned a customer satisfaction survey which covered most aspects of the Inspectorate's business, and this survey was designed to be the first of a three-year programme of surveys to track satisfaction levels, and the progress made by the Inspectorate in acting upon the results. This report presents the findings from the third of these annual surveys undertaken in 2004, and compares the findings between the three surveys where appropriate.

Prior to the survey, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives from the legal profession, planning bodies, statutory agencies and other organisations with an interest in planning issues. Four focus groups were also undertaken, each one consisting separately of complainers, third parties, unrepresented appellants or agents. The depth interviews and focus groups helped to inform survey design and provided detailed information on customer views that would have been difficult to elicit in the questionnaire survey.

The 2004 survey questionnaire was similar to that used in the previous surveys to allow for reliable comparison. The survey was a postal survey of 5,500 customers selected from the Inspectorate customer records. The sample was stratified by case type (planning appeals, enforcement appeals, adverts, call-ins etc) and respondent type (local authority, agents, individual appellants and interested parties), with selection being at random within strata.

In total, 1,852 questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 33%. The main findings are now reported below under a series of headings, and any differences between the surveys are highlighted in the text.

Customer Satisfaction Survey 2004 Final Report in PDF 1.05mb
Customer Satisfaction Survey 2004 Final Report in word 1.54mb

Appendix A Topic Guide in PDF 117kb
Appendix A Topic Guide in Word 69kb

Appendix B Appeals Questionnaire in PDF 774kb
Appendix B Appeals Questionnaire in Word 313kb

Appendix B Other Procedures Questionnaire in PDF 1.00mb
Appendix B Other Procedures Questionnaire in Word 463kb

Previous Customer satisfaction surveys

2003 Report

2002 Report

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