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Decision times · East of England

How long planning decisions take in Ipswich

51 days. Ranked 44 of 343.

In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Ipswich took 51 days from submission to decision — 5 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 802 decisions where the council published both dates.

51 days
Median decision 5 days inside the eight week target
44 of 343
UK rank up 67 places in a year
64%
Within eight weeks 83% within thirteen
134 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Ipswich compares

Year to September 2026

Ipswich decides faster than the country as a whole: 5 days below the national median of 56 days. Nationally 55% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 64%.

The average here is 77 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 134 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 510 64%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 159 20%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 133 17%

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.

Ipswich: 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 51 44 of 343
June 2026 52 72 of 328
March 2026 54 118 of 243
December 2025 53 131 of 236
September 2025 53 111 of 324
June 2025 51 39 of 313
March 2025 50 34 of 315
December 2024 49 29 of 319

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 53 days, Ipswich has moved up 67 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. Amendments 73 decided 31 days
  2. Trees 165 decided 38 days
  3. Prior approval 28 decided 49 days
  4. Lawful development 34 decided 51 days
  5. Advertising 21 decided 56 days
  6. Conditions 126 decided 56 days
  7. Full applications 315 decided 57 days
  8. Heritage and listed buildings 37 decided 68 days

How these types compare nationally

What Ipswich decides

Year to September 2026

Ipswich issued 802 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 94% were approvals: 739 granted against 46 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 Ipswich?

The median planning application decided by Ipswich in the year to September 2026 took 51 days from submission to decision, 5 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 802 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 44 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Ipswich meet the eight week target?

64% of the 802 decisions Ipswich made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 83% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 134 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Ipswich faster or slower than average?

Ipswich is faster than average: its median of 51 days is 5 days below the national median of 56 days.

Is Ipswich getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 53 days, Ipswich has moved up 67 places in the table. Its median has fallen by 2 days.

What proportion of applications does Ipswich approve?

94% of the clear-cut outcomes Ipswich issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 739 granted against 46 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Ipswich planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 51 days from application to decision (5 days inside the eight week target), across 802 decisions with both dates published. 64% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 83% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 134 days. Ranked 44 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 94% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.