The statutory answer is eight weeks. The measured answer, across 2,094,240 real decisions, is 10.7 weeks, and 90% of English councils run over the statutory period on average. This page is the working: every council, every project type, every figure traceable to the council's own record.
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According to PlanningLens analysis of 2,094,240 decided planning applications across 209 English councils, the average planning application takes 10.7 weeks from validation to decision, against the statutory eight-week period, and 90% of councils (189 of 209) take longer than eight weeks on average.
Source: PlanningLens analysis of council planning portal records · snapshot 9 July 2026 · Quote freely with a link to this page
The statutory clock starts at validation, not submission. Checking that a new application is complete can take a week or two on its own, and if documents are missing the clock does not start until you resubmit. That is also why measures counted from submission read differently from the validation-basis figures on this page.
Once validated, a typical householder application moves through neighbour consultation (a 21-day statutory window), officer assessment, and a delegated decision, and each stage has a queue. One complication is usually all it takes to pass the statutory period: an objection, a request for amended plans, or a referral to planning committee, which then waits for the next committee date.
The eight-week period applies to householder and minor applications. Major applications carry thirteen weeks, and cases needing an environmental impact assessment sixteen. The named-council league tables on this page are householder applications only, so the eight-week comparison there is exact.
National averages for householder applications decided in 2025, measured from validation to decision. Sample sizes shown: every average on this page carries its n.
| Project type | Average | Over 8 weeks | Decisions (2025) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two Storey | 11.37 wks | 48% | 5,891 |
| Loft Conversion | 9.49 wks | 37% | 15,488 |
| Rear Extension | 9.46 wks | 36% | 3,358 |
| Single Storey | 9.02 wks | 33% | 35,900 |
Change-of-use and larger schemes run longer still: on the all-types measure the median council averages over 14 weeks for change of use. Your council matters more than the national average. See the full council league table or check your postcode.
Householder decisions, Great Britain, minimum 50 decisions in the year. Northern Ireland is measured against its own statutory regime and reported separately below.
| # | Council | Avg time | Over 8 wks | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melton | 18.9 wks | 91% | 86 |
| 2 | South Downs | 13.5 wks | 63% | 317 |
| 3 | Bassetlaw | 13.3 wks | 79% | 191 |
| 4 | Guildford | 13.3 wks | 66% | 771 |
| 5 | Glasgow | 13.1 wks | 84% | 311 |
| 6 | Wyre | 13.1 wks | 59% | 113 |
| 7 | Powys | 12.8 wks | 63% | 73 |
| 8 | Stafford | 12.6 wks | 58% | 180 |
| 9 | Gateshead | 12.2 wks | 62% | 221 |
| 10 | Blaby | 12.1 wks | 59% | 163 |
| 11 | Canterbury | 12.1 wks | 60% | 484 |
| 12 | Camden | 12.0 wks | 48% | 407 |
| 13 | Babergh Mid Suffolk | 11.8 wks | 73% | 264 |
| 14 | Torbay | 11.7 wks | 64% | 210 |
| 15 | Oldham | 11.6 wks | 52% | 501 |
| # | Council | Avg time | Over 8 wks | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fareham | 3.7 wks | 1% | 119 |
| 2 | Redbridge | 5.7 wks | 12% | 857 |
| 3 | North Ayrshire | 5.9 wks | 12% | 69 |
| 4 | Rotherham | 5.9 wks | 2% | 82 |
| 5 | Lichfield | 6.5 wks | 4% | 310 |
| 6 | Telford & Wrekin | 6.6 wks | 5% | 217 |
| 7 | Burnley | 6.8 wks | 24% | 50 |
| 8 | Arun | 6.8 wks | 0% | 74 |
| 9 | Halton | 7.0 wks | 17% | 169 |
| 10 | Watford | 7.0 wks | 15% | 488 |
146 GB councils ranked in 2025. Full table with every council: Decision-Time League Table.
England's nine ONS regions on the all-types measure, weighted by decisions and ranked slowest first. The named council in each row is the region's slowest on the 2025 householder league-table measure, so every name links to a council page you can check.
| Region | Avg time | Councils over 8 wks | Decisions | Councils | Slowest (householder) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 11.6 wks | 96% | 99,899 | 25 | Melton |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 11.6 wks | 92% | 176,282 | 13 | Barnsley |
| West Midlands | 11.1 wks | 92% | 45,337 | 12 | Stafford |
| South West | 10.8 wks | 74% | 207,105 | 19 | Torbay |
| North West | 10.8 wks | 95% | 125,337 | 22 | Wyre |
| South East | 10.7 wks | 93% | 300,709 | 41 | Guildford |
| London | 10.4 wks | 97% | 881,573 | 30 | Camden |
| North East | 10.3 wks | 89% | 56,475 | 9 | Gateshead |
| East of England | 10.1 wks | 84% | 175,070 | 31 | Babergh Mid Suffolk |
7 national park and joint-board authorities sit outside the nine ONS regions; they count toward the England figures above but appear in no region row.
Householder decisions for the council area, not the wider metro area: 2025 where the sample allows, the latest qualifying year where it does not. Same measure as the league tables above.
| City | Avg time | Over 8 wks | n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester | 9.7 wks | 36% | 551 |
| Leeds | 8.1 wks | 25% | 2,292 |
| Bristol | 7.7 wks | 23% | 1,078 |
| Nottingham | 10.9 wks | 54% | 346 |
| Leicester | 7.8 wks | 32% | 82 |
| Glasgow† | 13.1 wks | 84% | 311 |
† Scotland's statutory period for local developments is two months rather than eight weeks.
London is measured as a region: 10.4 weeks on average across 881,573 decisions in 30 boroughs. On the householder measure, the slowest borough in 2025 was Camden at 12.0 weeks and the fastest was Redbridge at 5.7 weeks.
Not named: Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cardiff, Edinburgh. Their portals do not currently publish decision records that pass the date-quality gates at the naming threshold, so no figure is claimed for them.
Northern Ireland's statutory target is different: local applications should be processed within an average of 15 weeks, not eight. Even so, DfI's own statistics show local applications averaging 19.0 weeks in 2024/25, with three of eleven councils meeting the target. DfI's measure is a median that includes withdrawals, so it is not directly comparable with the mean-of-decided figures below (see NI Assembly research briefing, Jan 2026).
On PlanningLens's measure (householder applications, validation to decision), Newry, Mourne and Down averaged 34.4 weeks in 2024 across 143 decisions, with 98% taking longer than eight weeks: more than double NI's own 15-week target. Mid & East Antrim, by contrast, decides householder applications faster than most of England.
| # | Council (2025, n≥50) | Avg time | Over 8 wks | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council | 17.1 wks | 69% | 70 |
| 2 | Ards and North Down Borough Council | 16.1 wks | 74% | 58 |
| 3 | Belfast City Council | 15.3 wks | 82% | 108 |
| 4 | Mid Ulster District Council | 14.7 wks | 82% | 88 |
| – | Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (2024, latest full year at sample) | 34.4 wks | 98% | 143 |
The honest trend needs the same councils every year: a rising line can otherwise just mean slower councils joined the data. This panel holds membership constant: 71 English councils with at least 20 householder decisions in every year 2020–2025. Times peaked in 2022 at 10.4 weeks and have eased since, but the panel average has exceeded the eight-week statutory period in every year shown.
| Year | Avg time | Decisions over 8 wks | Decisions | Councils reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019* | 8.1 wks | 23% | 36,085 | 48/71 |
| 2020 | 8.8 wks | 29% | 53,061 | 71/71 |
| 2021 | 9.6 wks | 36% | 65,826 | 71/71 |
| 2022 | 10.4 wks | 39% | 53,777 | 71/71 |
| 2023 | 10.3 wks | 37% | 44,719 | 71/71 |
| 2024 | 9.6 wks | 33% | 40,269 | 71/71 |
| 2025 | 9.1 wks | 33% | 39,224 | 71/71 |
| 2026* | 9.4 wks | 36% | 8,558 | 52/71 |
* outside the panel window (2020–2025): same councils, partial coverage shown honestly. A UK-wide panel including Northern Ireland is published in the underlying dataset.
Same measure at both ends: councils with at least 50 householder decisions in both 2020 and 2025. 84 GB councils qualify. Improvement and rank are different questions: a council can cut its times sharply and still sit among the slowest. The second table shows who cut them most.
| Council | 2020 avg | 2025 avg | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guildford | 8.2 wks | 13.3 wks | +5.1 wks |
| Glasgow | 8.4 wks | 13.1 wks | +4.6 wks |
| Rugby | 7.2 wks | 10.6 wks | +3.4 wks |
| Bath & NE Somerset | 8.3 wks | 11.5 wks | +3.2 wks |
| Neath Port Talbot | 6.2 wks | 9.4 wks | +3.2 wks |
| County Durham | 7.7 wks | 10.9 wks | +3.1 wks |
| Rushmoor | 6.1 wks | 8.7 wks | +2.6 wks |
| Brentwood | 7.9 wks | 10.4 wks | +2.5 wks |
| Hackney | 9.0 wks | 11.4 wks | +2.4 wks |
| Nottingham | 8.5 wks | 10.9 wks | +2.4 wks |
| Council | 2020 avg | 2025 avg | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camden | 19.3 wks | 12.0 wks | −7.3 wks |
| Hastings | 13.8 wks | 9.5 wks | −4.3 wks |
| Portsmouth | 13.6 wks | 10.2 wks | −3.4 wks |
| Gloucester | 12.8 wks | 9.4 wks | −3.4 wks |
| Telford & Wrekin | 8.6 wks | 6.6 wks | −2.0 wks |
| Trafford | 9.8 wks | 8.0 wks | −1.8 wks |
| Isle of Wight | 9.5 wks | 7.8 wks | −1.7 wks |
| Kirklees | 11.9 wks | 10.2 wks | −1.7 wks |
| Merton | 9.9 wks | 8.3 wks | −1.6 wks |
| Tewkesbury | 12.0 wks | 10.4 wks | −1.5 wks |
Three kinds of number circulate for the same question. They differ because they measure different things. Here is the reconciliation, so you can pick the right one for your purpose.
| Source | What it measures | Why it reads differently |
|---|---|---|
| Official statistics MHCLG quarterly release | % of decisions made within the statutory period or an agreed extension | Extensions of time count as on-time, so headline percentages stay in the nineties while the same release shows far fewer decisions inside the raw statutory window. |
| Searchland planning leaderboard | Average days from submission to decision, all application types | The clock starts at submission (before validation) and the mix leans toward development schemes, so day-counts run differently from a householder validation-basis measure. |
| PlanningLens this page | Actual elapsed weeks, validation to decision, per application, per council | No extension paperwork, no survey returns: the council's own published dates, measured. Householder figures for league tables; all-types figures for scale. Every number links to method and sample size. |
None of these is wrong; they answer different questions. If you want to know how long you will wait, elapsed calendar time in your council is the number that matches your experience.
Once decided, most applications succeed: across PlanningLens's quality-filtered dataset, councils approved 88.5% of decided applications, while 395,060 were refused. Refusal patterns vary sharply by council and ward.
Approval & refusal analysis: council rankings · methodology
The short versions, for anyone arriving in a hurry. The full workings are in the sections above, and these are the same answers the page publishes to search and answer engines.
On average 10.7 weeks from validation to decision, measured across 2,094,240 real decisions in 209 English councils, against a statutory period of eight weeks for most applications. 90% of councils take longer than eight weeks on average.
Eight weeks is the statutory determination period. Official statistics count a decision as "in time" if it was made within eight weeks OR within an extension of time the applicant agreed to in writing, so headline performance figures include extended deadlines. PlanningLens measures actual elapsed calendar time.
In 2025, householder averages ranged from 9.02 weeks (Single Storey) to 11.37 weeks (Two Storey) nationally. Individual councils vary from under four weeks to over eighteen.
On 2025 householder decisions, the slowest ranked GB council was Melton at 18.9 weeks. In Northern Ireland, which has its own 15-week statutory target, Newry, Mourne and Down averaged 34.4 weeks in 2024.
On an identical panel of 71 English councils, householder decision times peaked at 10.4 weeks in 2022 and eased to 9.1 weeks in 2025. That is still above the eight-week statutory period, which the panel average has exceeded in every year since 2020.
Everything on this page is published to be used. Quote it, chart it, republish it. All we ask is a link to this page. Figures regenerate as council portals publish new decisions; the snapshot date above tells you exactly which vintage you are quoting.
Cite in an article
90% of English councils (189 of 209) take longer than the statutory eight weeks to decide a planning application, averaging 10.7 weeks across 2,094,240 decisions. Source: PlanningLens, https://planninglens.co.uk/how-long-does-planning-permission-take.html (data snapshot 9 July 2026).
Cite in research
PlanningLens (2026). How long does planning permission take? Council decision-time analysis, data snapshot 9 July 2026. https://planninglens.co.uk/how-long-does-planning-permission-take.html
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