Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · London

How long planning decisions take in Brent

58 days.

In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by Brent took 58 days from submission to decision — 2 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 2,143 decisions where the council published both dates.

This council carries a figure but no rank

Not ranked yet: our records do not yet pass the historical coverage, monthly continuity, missing-date and refresh checks for this window. The figure above is still what the published dates say; it is left out of the league table so it cannot distort the ranking. See the methodology.

58 days
Median decision 2 days beyond the eight week target
49%
Within eight weeks 85% within thirteen
105 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Brent compares

Year to December 2026

Brent takes longer than the country as a whole: 1 day above the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 49%.

The average here is 64 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 105 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 1,041 49%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 773 36%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 329 15%

The last few years

Each row is a full twelve months of decisions, ending in the quarter shown

Rolling twelve month windows overlap by nine months, so this reads as a trend rather than as four separate quarters. Only windows our records reach far enough back to measure in full are listed.

Brent: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
March 2026 56 15 of 38
December 2025 56 5 of 24
September 2025 56 5 of 27
June 2025 56 6 of 31

By type of application

Year to December 2026 · types with at least ten decisions

The headline median mixes every kind of application together. A householder extension and an outline application for a housing site are not the same job, and the difference between them is usually larger than the difference between two councils.

  1. Prior approval 111 decided 32 days
  2. Trees 73 decided 39 days
  3. Advertising 27 decided 56 days
  4. Amendments 76 decided 56 days
  5. Conditions 116 decided 56 days
  6. Lawful development 219 decided 56 days
  7. Householder 383 decided 69 days
  8. Full applications 458 decided 70 days

How these types compare nationally

What Brent decides

Year to December 2026

Brent issued 2,143 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 77% were approvals: 1,463 granted against 437 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes sit outside that percentage rather than being counted as either.

Speed and approval rate are separate things. A council that refuses quickly is not doing the same job as one that negotiates an approval slowly, and neither figure alone says which served the applicant better.

Common questions

How long does a planning decision take in Brent?

The median planning application decided by Brent in the year to December 2026 took 58 days from submission to decision, 2 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 2,143 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date.

Does Brent meet the eight week target?

49% of the 2,143 decisions Brent made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 85% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 105 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Brent faster or slower than average?

Brent is slower than average: its median of 58 days is 1 day above the national median of 57 days.

What proportion of applications does Brent approve?

77% of the clear-cut outcomes Brent issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 1,463 granted against 437 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Brent planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 58 days from application to decision (2 days beyond the eight week target), across 2,143 decisions with both dates published. 49% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 85% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 105 days. 77% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.

Or take the data itself: this council's history (CSV) or the full league table (CSV).

Embed these figures

Paste either snippet into your page. Click a snippet to select all of it. The credit line is part of the embed.

<script src="https://planindex.co.uk/embed/decision-times.js" data-council="brent" defer></script>

If your CMS strips scripts, use the frame directly:

<iframe src="https://planindex.co.uk/embed/decision-times/brent" title="Planning decision times in Brent" width="100%" height="215" loading="lazy" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p>Data: <a href="https://planindex.co.uk/planning-decision-times/brent">Planning decision times, from PlanIndex</a></p>