Planning application timescales - illusion and reality

The pretence ended last year, when MHCLG finally woke up to the fact no-one takes the official figures seriously. The laughable 91% of planning applications decided within 13 weeks fooled no-one, except maybe the public. Removing “agreed extensions of time” changes the figures from unbelievable to recognisable. MHCLG now publish these alongside, and suddenly the 91% drops to 19% of major planning applications decided within 13 weeks. A neat reversal from 91% to 19% shows the genuine state of affairs.

MHCLG got honest in 2024 because, “The government knows that extension of time agreements can also be used by authorities to compensate for delays in decision-making, which masks poor performance and does not incentivise local authorities to determine applications within the statutory time limit” (DLUHC 2024, Accelerated Planning System Consultation).

At last we can show clients it’s not only their planning application taking a long time….

For the genuine picture on speed of decision making, see our table of genunine performance by LPA for major, non-major and householder planning applications for the year ending 31st March 2025 here.

To see whether your LPA is improving or worsening over time, quarterly comparisons are available here.

Publishing the figures with extensions of time removed is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately there is no move as yet to remove extension of time agreements from the measurements making up the qualifying criteria for designating local planning authorities which are underperforming. Changing this would be one of the quickest ways for the Government to persuade local planning authorities to prioritise development management.