Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · By region

Planning decision times by UK region

54 days in the South West. 95 in Northern Ireland.

Across the year to September 2026, the median council in the South West decided a planning application in 54 days, against 95 days for the median council in Northern Ireland. Regional figures are the median of each region's councils, so one very large authority cannot speak for its neighbours.

A regional figure here is the median of the medians: every council in the region is measured on its own caseload, and the middle council's figure represents the region. That is deliberate. Pooling every application together would let a single large authority — a county unitary deciding tens of thousands of applications — set the figure for a dozen smaller districts around it, and the result would describe that one council rather than the region.

Only councils ranked in the league table are included, so every region below is built from councils whose records reach far enough back to measure. Regions with fewer than three ranked councils are left out rather than reported on a sample too small to mean anything. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland stand as regions in their own right, because English regions do not apply to them.

Median days by region

Year to September 2026 · 362,272 decisions

Median days from planning application to decision by UK region, year to September 2026. Each figure is the median of the region's councils. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Region Median council Fastest Slowest Councils Decisions
South West 54 39 66 28 62,804
East of England 56 44 570 43 32,165
London 56 38 93 30 66,069
South East 56 29 77 61 79,101
Wales 56 49 83 18 13,723
North East 57 31 132 11 3,495
Yorkshire and The Humber 57 50 135 17 30,589
Scotland 59 39 99 32 25,136
West Midlands 60 43 132 27 13,545
North West 61 49 273 32 16,928
East Midlands 65 48 150 33 12,047
Northern Ireland 95 48 182 11 6,670
  1. South West 28 councils 54 days
  2. East of England 43 councils 56 days
  3. London 30 councils 56 days
  4. South East 61 councils 56 days
  5. Wales 18 councils 56 days
  6. North East 11 councils 57 days
  7. Yorkshire and The Humber 17 councils 57 days
  8. Scotland 32 councils 59 days
  9. West Midlands 27 councils 60 days
  10. North West 32 councils 61 days
  11. East Midlands 33 councils 65 days
  12. Northern Ireland 11 councils 95 days

The fastest and slowest columns show the range inside each region. In most regions that range is wider than the gap between the regions themselves, which is worth holding on to: your council matters more than your region.

Every ranked council, by region

Fastest first within each region

South West

East of England

London

South East

Wales

North East

Yorkshire and The Humber

Scotland

West Midlands

North West

East Midlands

Northern Ireland

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Planning decision times by UK region, year to September 2026: the regional median ranges from 54 days in the South West to 95 days in Northern Ireland. Each regional figure is the median of the councils in it. National median 56 days across 343 councils. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.