How long planning decisions take in Hart

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 52 days, Hart has moved down 71 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. Telecoms 177 decided 18 days
2. Amendments 20 decided 28 days
3. Other 13 decided 42 days
4. Conditions 152 decided 56 days
5. Lawful development 95 decided 56 days
6. Trees 455 decided 58 days
7. Householder 332 decided 62 days
8. Outline 102 decided 63 days
9. Advertising 16 decided 68 days
10. Full applications 83 decided 86 days
11. Heritage and listed buildings 63 decided 94 days

How these types compare nationally

Hart issued 1,529 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 91% were approvals: 980 granted against 95 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.