Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · Scotland

How long planning decisions take in Dumfries and Galloway

48 days. Ranked 19 of 343.

In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Dumfries and Galloway took 48 days from submission to decision — 8 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 1,429 decisions where the council published both dates.

48 days
Median decision 8 days inside the eight week target
19 of 343
UK rank up 270 places in a year
63%
Within eight weeks 89% within thirteen
96 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Dumfries and Galloway compares

Year to September 2026

Dumfries and Galloway decides faster than the country as a whole: 8 days below the national median of 56 days. Nationally 55% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 63%.

The average here is 55 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 96 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 898 63%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 370 26%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 161 11%

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.

Dumfries and Galloway: 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 48 19 of 343
June 2026 46 26 of 328
March 2026 48 45 of 243
December 2025 50 102 of 236
September 2025 78 289 of 324
June 2025 81 278 of 313
March 2025 51 41 of 315
December 2024 47 22 of 319

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 78 days, Dumfries and Galloway has moved up 270 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. Outline 264 decided 1 days
  2. Prior approval 123 decided 24 days
  3. Conditions 192 decided 30 days
  4. Lawful development 24 decided 35 days
  5. Trees 20 decided 44 days
  6. Advertising 19 decided 49 days
  7. Full applications 643 decided 57 days
  8. Heritage and listed buildings 121 decided 61 days

How these types compare nationally

What Dumfries and Galloway decides

Year to September 2026

Dumfries and Galloway issued 1,429 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 95% were approvals: 1,231 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 Dumfries and Galloway?

The median planning application decided by Dumfries and Galloway in the year to September 2026 took 48 days from submission to decision, 8 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 1,429 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 19 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Dumfries and Galloway meet the eight week target?

63% of the 1,429 decisions Dumfries and Galloway made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 89% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 96 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Dumfries and Galloway faster or slower than average?

Dumfries and Galloway is faster than average: its median of 48 days is 8 days below the national median of 56 days.

Is Dumfries and Galloway getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 78 days, Dumfries and Galloway has moved up 270 places in the table. Its median has fallen by 30 days.

What proportion of applications does Dumfries and Galloway approve?

95% of the clear-cut outcomes Dumfries and Galloway issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 1,231 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.

Dumfries and Galloway planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 48 days from application to decision (8 days inside the eight week target), across 1,429 decisions with both dates published. 63% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 89% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 96 days. Ranked 19 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 95% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.