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Decision times · London

How long planning decisions take in Camden

42 days. Ranked 7 of 343.

In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Camden took 42 days from submission to decision — 14 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 3,751 decisions where the council published both dates.

42 days
Median decision 14 days inside the eight week target
7 of 343
UK rank up 14 places in a year
70%
Within eight weeks 85% within thirteen
119 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Camden compares

Year to September 2026

Camden decides faster than the country as a whole: 14 days below the national median of 56 days. Nationally 55% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 70%.

The average here is 62 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 119 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 2,614 70%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 569 15%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 568 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.

Camden: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
September 2026 42 7 of 343
June 2026 42 12 of 328
March 2026 40 12 of 243
December 2025 34 10 of 236
September 2025 35 21 of 324
June 2025 93 296 of 313
March 2025 62 209 of 315
December 2024 60 200 of 319

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 35 days, Camden has moved up 14 places in the table.

By type of application

Year to September 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. Trees 1,288 decided 30 days
  2. Amendments 186 decided 48 days
  3. Prior approval 13 decided 50 days
  4. Lawful development 132 decided 54 days
  5. Advertising 189 decided 55 days
  6. Heritage and listed buildings 443 decided 55 days
  7. Full applications 1,170 decided 56 days
  8. Householder 319 decided 59 days

How these types compare nationally

What Camden decides

Year to September 2026

Camden issued 3,751 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 94% were approvals: 3,334 granted against 195 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 Camden?

The median planning application decided by Camden in the year to September 2026 took 42 days from submission to decision, 14 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 3,751 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 7 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Camden meet the eight week target?

70% of the 3,751 decisions Camden made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 85% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 119 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Camden faster or slower than average?

Camden is faster than average: its median of 42 days is 14 days below the national median of 56 days.

Is Camden getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 35 days, Camden has moved up 14 places in the table. Its median has risen by 7 days.

What proportion of applications does Camden approve?

94% of the clear-cut outcomes Camden issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 3,334 granted against 195 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Camden planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 42 days from application to decision (14 days inside the eight week target), across 3,751 decisions with both dates published. 70% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 85% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 119 days. Ranked 7 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 94% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.