How long planning decisions take in Horsham

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 62 days, Horsham has moved up 102 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 62 decided 27 days
2. Outline 39 decided 31 days
3. Prior approval 59 decided 47 days
4. Heritage and listed buildings 149 decided 52 days
5. Amendments 147 decided 56 days
6. Conditions 216 decided 56 days
7. Householder 356 decided 56 days
8. Lawful development 69 decided 56 days
9. Trees 158 decided 67 days
10. Advertising 14 decided 71 days
11. Full applications 140 decided 77 days

How these types compare nationally

Horsham issued 1,423 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 95% were approvals: 1,264 granted against 70 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.