How Long Does Planning Permission Take? Each Stage in Weeks

Planning · Timelines

How long a planning application takes in England, stage by stage: the legal decision periods, what slows a council down, how your own council performs, and what to do if it runs late.

Last updated: 30 October 2026 · Reviewed by Graham Sproul RIBA, Design & Operations Director

The figures here are approximate and meant to give you an idea, not a quote. Every house and brief is different, so your costs and programme will depend on your project.

How long does planning permission take?

Once the council has a valid application, it has 8 weeks to decide a householder or other non-major application and 13 weeks for major development. Where an environmental impact assessment is required, the limit is 16 weeks. The clock starts the day after the council receives the valid application, so the time you spend preparing it comes first.

These are the statutory periods for England, set by the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 and the government’s planning guidance. They apply to every council, from Wandsworth to the smallest district council. What differs from one council to another is how often it meets them, which we come to below.

Application	Time the council has to decide	Counted from	Source
Householder application (an extension, or a dormer that needs permission)	8 weeks	The day after a valid application is received	DMPO 2015 art. 34; GOV.UK guidance (8 Apr 2026)
Full application for other non-major development, such as a small change of use	8 weeks	Same	Same
Major development (for example 10 or more homes)	13 weeks	Same	Same
Development needing an environmental impact assessment	16 weeks	Same	GOV.UK guidance (8 Apr 2026)
Any of the above, by agreement	A longer period agreed in writing	As agreed	DMPO 2015 art. 34; GOV.UK guidance

You’ll see these periods called the determination period. The council’s letter acknowledging a valid application gives a target date, which is the end of that period. It’s the date the council works to.

The planning permission timeline, stage by stage

A planning application runs in five stages: optional pre-application advice, preparing and submitting the application, validation, publicity and assessment, and the decision. Only the decision has a legal time limit. The stages before it depend on how complete the application is and how busy the council is, so they’re where most of the variation comes from.

Stage	What happens	How long	What sets the length
Pre-application advice (optional)	The council’s planning team gives written advice on your proposal before you apply	No statutory period; each council sets its own service and fee	The council’s own service standard
Preparing the application	Survey, design, drawings, forms, any supporting reports and the fee	Depends on the brief and the reports the council needs	How settled the brief is, and which reports the council needs
Validation	The council checks the forms, drawings, documents and fee before the clock starts	No statutory period	Whether anything is missing or wrong
Publicity and consultation	A site notice or letters to neighbours; consultees such as highways or conservation may comment	Site notice displayed for at least 21 days	Fixed minimums, inside the 8 weeks
Assessment	The officer visits, weighs the scheme against local policy and may ask for changes	Inside the 8 weeks	Objections, amendments, the officer’s workload
Decision	Made by a planning officer or, for some applications, the planning committee	By the end of week 8, or the date you agree	The council’s rules on who decides what
After the decision	Discharging conditions, building regulations, party wall notices, tender	Permission lasts 3 years to start work	Your programme

Only day 1, the end of week 8 and week 16 are fixed by the rules. The order in between varies from council to council.

Pre-application advice

Before you apply, you can ask the council for written advice on your plans. It isn’t required, and there’s no legal time limit for the reply: each council publishes its own service, fees and response times on its website. It’s most useful when a scheme is close to a policy line, such as a large extension in a conservation area.

Submission and validation

You can apply online through the Planning Portal or directly to the council. The council then checks that the forms, drawings, documents and fee are all there and correct. Only then is the application valid and the 8 weeks running. Each council publishes a local validation checklist, and an application that misses an item is held until it’s fixed. In our proposals we allow about 2 weeks for validation.

Publicity and consultation

For a householder application, the council either displays a site notice on or near the property for at least 21 days, or writes to the adjoining owners or occupiers. It also puts the application on its website, and the deadline for comments can’t be less than 14 days after that. Neighbours, local councillors and consultees such as the conservation officer can comment. All of this happens inside the 8 weeks.

Assessment and decision

The case officer visits the site, reads the comments and weighs the scheme against the local plan. If something small stands in the way, the officer may ask for amended drawings rather than refuse. Each council’s own rules say which applications its officers can decide and which go to the planning committee, which meets on fixed dates.

How long does planning permission take for an extension?

An extension to a house is a householder application, so the council has 8 weeks from the day after it receives a valid application. That period is the same for every council in England. Add the time to design and draw the scheme before you submit, and the time after approval for building regulations and tender.

Some extensions don’t need a planning application at all: our planning permission vs permitted development guide explains when.

Planning is one part of the programme. If you want the whole run from first drawing to moving back in, our guide to how long a house extension takes in London covers design, approvals, tender and build.

Why is your planning application taking so long, and can you speed it up?

Most delays come from a handful of causes: an application that isn’t valid, a request for more information, objections that send it to committee, a conservation area or listed building, or a council with more applications than officers. You can head off most of them before you submit. The table shows what each one does to the clock.

Cause	What it does to the clock	What helps
Incomplete or invalid application	The 8 weeks don’t start until it’s valid	Check the council’s validation checklist; submit complete drawings and the right fee
Request for more information	Can push the decision past week 8, often with an agreed extension	Include the reports the council’s checklist asks for; reply within days
Amendments during assessment	Small changes may fit in the 8 weeks; bigger ones may need re-consultation	Design to the council’s guidance from the start; talk to the officer early
Objections and committee	Committees meet on set dates, which can move the decision	Show neighbours the plans before you apply; design out overlooking and overbearing walls
Conservation area or listed building	Extra consultation (conservation officer); listed building consent runs alongside	A heritage statement and drawings that show the historic fabric clearly
Council workload	Delays unrelated to your scheme	Check your council’s record (below); allow for it in your programme

The council’s process sets the pace. What you can control is how often the clock stops. Start with a valid, complete application. After that, reply to the officer quickly, follow the council’s design guidance, and show the neighbours the plans before you apply.

Does it depend on your council?

The legal period is the same everywhere, but how councils meet it varies. Government figures for the two years to June 2026 show that across England, about 54% of non-major decisions came within 8 weeks and about 40% were made under an agreed extension of time or similar agreement. Overall, 91% were made within 8 weeks or the agreed time.

Council	Non-major decisions (2 years)	Decided within 8 weeks	Decided under an agreed extension	On time (8 weeks or agreed date)
England	502,948	54%	40%	91%
Wandsworth	3,781	55%	37%	91%
Lambeth	2,731	50%	47%	94%
Merton	2,121	49%	41%	88%
Richmond upon Thames	3,583	65%	31%	95%
Hammersmith and Fulham	2,309	32%	65%	87%
Kensington and Chelsea	3,228	47%	51%	94%
Southwark	2,260	64%	34%	94%
Kingston upon Thames	2,076	73%	19%	89%
Bromley	4,156	61%	30%	86%

Official figures from MHCLG live table P153 (July 2024 to June 2026, provisional, published 24 September 2026). The columns are separate measures and are not additive: “within 8 weeks” and “under an agreed extension” don’t add up to “on time”. Non-major decisions include householder applications, minor developments and changes of use. “Agreed extension” also counts planning performance agreements and environmental impact assessment cases. Rounded to the nearest whole per cent.

To check any council in England, look it up in the government’s live table P153, which is updated every quarter. For your own application, the council’s online planning register shows the target date and every document as it comes in.

What if the council doesn’t decide in time?

If the council needs more time, government guidance says it should ask you to agree a longer period, in writing, with a date for the decision. If you don’t agree and the period passes, you can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate for non-determination. If a non-major application is still undecided after 16 weeks, with no extension agreed and no appeal, the fee is refunded.

Agreeing an extension makes sense when the officer is close to a positive recommendation and needs a small change. Appealing for non-determination takes the decision away from the council altogether, and householder appeals take time too: for appeals decided in June 2026, the median was 12 weeks.

If the application is refused, the decision notice gives the reasons. You have 12 weeks from the date on the decision letter to appeal a householder refusal, or you can revise the scheme and apply again. Our guide to why planning permission is refused, and what to do next covers both routes.

A worked example: an extension application from submission to decision

Take a rear extension in a London borough, with a complete application that the council receives on Monday 2 March 2026. The 8 weeks begin the next day, so the decision is due by Monday 27 April. If the council needs more time and you agree, the new date goes in writing. If nothing is agreed and there’s no decision by Monday 22 June, the fee is refunded.

In practice, we’d allow about 2 weeks before 2 March for validation, and tell the client to plan on about 3 months from submission to decision, because councils often run late.

Date	What happens	Why that date
Before submission	Survey, design and planning drawings	Length depends on the brief
Mon 2 March 2026	The council receives a valid application	Complete forms, drawings and fee
Tue 3 March	The 8-week period starts	The day after receipt
March	Site notice up for at least 21 days, or letters to neighbours	Minimum publicity
Mon 27 April	Decision due	End of the 8 weeks
Mon 22 June	Fee refunded if still undecided, with no extension agreed and no appeal	End of week 16
Within 3 years of the decision date	Work must start	How long permission lasts

Once the decision is in, conditions, building regulations and party wall notices come next. Our guide to what happens after planning approval takes it from there.

What we’d do to keep a planning application on time

Most of the time you can save is won before the application goes in. Before quoting, we run a desktop study of the house and research the borough’s planning policies, so the design starts from what the council is likely to accept. From there, these habits keep the 8 weeks running.

Submit it complete. Check the council’s local validation list and send everything it asks for, including any heritage or tree reports, so the clock starts the first time.

Design to the council’s guidance. Most boroughs publish design guidance for extensions and roofs. A scheme that follows it gives the officer fewer reasons to ask for changes.

Talk to the neighbours first. A neighbour who has seen the drawings is less likely to object, and fewer objections mean less chance of committee.

Answer the officer quickly. When an officer asks for a small amendment late in the period, a reply within days can be the difference between a decision on time and an extension.

Start the building regulations drawings while planning is pending. On simple schemes, we can start them during the 8 weeks, at the client’s risk: if the council asks for changes, some drawings may need redoing, but the time after approval is shorter.

Run a lawful development certificate and a full application in parallel, where it fits. When part of a scheme may be permitted development, applying for a certificate alongside a full application for the larger scheme gives you a fallback if the full application is delayed or refused.

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