Slowest Planning Councils in England
Which councils take the longest to decide planning applications? Average decision times ranked from slowest to fastest over the last 24 months.
| # | Council | Avg Days |
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The statutory target for most planning application decisions is 8 weeks (56 days) for minor applications and 13 weeks (91 days) for major applications. However, many local planning authorities regularly exceed these targets, with some UK councils taking considerably longer on average to determine planning applications.
Long planning application decision times can be caused by staffing shortages, high workload, complex applications requiring specialist consultation, or the need for additional information from applicants. Where a local planning authority fails to determine a planning application within the statutory period, applicants can lodge an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate on grounds of non-determination, which is treated as a deemed refusal.
The median planning decision time is often more informative than the average, as a small number of very long-running applications can skew average figures upward. These rankings compare UK councils fairly and only include local planning authorities with at least 50 decided planning applications in the last 24 months.