How long planning decisions take in Elmbridge

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.

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 63 days, Elmbridge has moved up 12 places in the table.

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 33 decided 21 days
2. Telecoms 110 decided 21 days
3. Prior approval 73 decided 41 days
4. Trees 405 decided 43 days
5. Conditions 293 decided 56 days
6. Lawful development 261 decided 56 days
7. Other 19 decided 56 days
8. Advertising 36 decided 70 days
9. Amendments 191 decided 76 days
10. Householder 747 decided 83 days
11. Heritage and listed buildings 16 decided 97 days
12. Full applications 224 decided 104 days

How these types compare nationally

Elmbridge issued 2,424 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 79% were approvals: 1,538 granted against 411 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.