Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · East of England

How long planning decisions take in Brentwood

66 days. Ranked 33 of 45.

In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by Brentwood took 66 days from submission to decision — 10 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 553 decisions where the council published both dates.

66 days
Median decision 10 days beyond the eight week target
33 of 45
UK rank down 13 places in a year
38%
Within eight weeks 71% within thirteen
153 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Brentwood compares

Year to December 2026

Brentwood takes longer than the country as a whole: 9 days above the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 38%.

The average here is 87 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 153 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 208 38%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 182 33%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 163 29%

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.

Brentwood: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
December 2026 66 33 of 45
September 2026 69 48 of 56
March 2026 134 34 of 38
December 2025 114 20 of 24
September 2025 72 22 of 27
June 2025 66 24 of 31
March 2025 61 23 of 30

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 114 days, Brentwood has moved down 13 places in the table.

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 11 decided 41 days
  2. Trees 50 decided 50 days
  3. Amendments 13 decided 58 days
  4. Conditions 67 decided 60 days
  5. Lawful development 53 decided 82 days
  6. Householder 121 decided 83 days
  7. Full applications 89 decided 101 days
  8. Heritage and listed buildings 16 decided 114 days

How these types compare nationally

What Brentwood decides

Year to December 2026

Brentwood issued 553 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 88% were approvals: 460 granted against 60 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 Brentwood?

The median planning application decided by Brentwood in the year to December 2026 took 66 days from submission to decision, 10 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 553 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 33 of 45 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Brentwood meet the eight week target?

38% of the 553 decisions Brentwood made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 71% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 153 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Brentwood faster or slower than average?

Brentwood is slower than average: its median of 66 days is 9 days above the national median of 57 days.

Is Brentwood getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 114 days, Brentwood has moved down 13 places in the table. Its median has fallen by 48 days.

What proportion of applications does Brentwood approve?

88% of the clear-cut outcomes Brentwood issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 460 granted against 60 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Brentwood planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 66 days from application to decision (10 days beyond the eight week target), across 553 decisions with both dates published. 38% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 71% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 153 days. Ranked 33 of 45 UK councils on decision speed (national median 57 days). 88% 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="brentwood" defer></script>

If your CMS strips scripts, use the frame directly:

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