Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · North West

How long planning decisions take in Lancaster

56 days.

In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by Lancaster took 56 days from submission to decision — exactly the eight week target. That is measured across 547 decisions where the council published both dates.

This council carries a figure but no rank

Not ranked yet: our records do not yet pass the historical coverage, monthly continuity, missing-date and refresh checks for this window. The figure above is still what the published dates say; it is left out of the league table so it cannot distort the ranking. See the methodology.

56 days
Median decision exactly the eight week target
52%
Within eight weeks 73% within thirteen
154 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Lancaster compares

Year to December 2026

Lancaster decides faster than the country as a whole: 1 day below the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 52%.

The average here is 80 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 154 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 282 52%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 120 22%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 145 27%

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.

Lancaster: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
March 2026 53 8 of 38

By type of application

Year to December 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 13 decided 31 days
  2. Trees 66 decided 32 days
  3. Lawful development 31 decided 52 days
  4. Advertising 12 decided 56 days
  5. Conditions 60 decided 63 days
  6. Full applications 208 decided 81 days
  7. Heritage and listed buildings 40 decided 92 days

How these types compare nationally

What Lancaster decides

Year to December 2026

Lancaster issued 547 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 85% were approvals: 391 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.

Common questions

How long does a planning decision take in Lancaster?

The median planning application decided by Lancaster in the year to December 2026 took 56 days from submission to decision, exactly the eight week target. That is measured across 547 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date.

Does Lancaster meet the eight week target?

52% of the 547 decisions Lancaster made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 73% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 154 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Lancaster faster or slower than average?

Lancaster is faster than average: its median of 56 days is 1 day below the national median of 57 days.

What proportion of applications does Lancaster approve?

85% of the clear-cut outcomes Lancaster issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 391 granted against 70 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Lancaster planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 56 days from application to decision (exactly the eight week target), across 547 decisions with both dates published. 52% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 73% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 154 days. 85% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.

Or take the data itself: this council's history (CSV) or the full league table (CSV).

Embed these figures

Paste either snippet into your page. Click a snippet to select all of it. The credit line is part of the embed.

<script src="https://planindex.co.uk/embed/decision-times.js" data-council="lancaster" defer></script>

If your CMS strips scripts, use the frame directly:

<iframe src="https://planindex.co.uk/embed/decision-times/lancaster" title="Planning decision times in Lancaster" width="100%" height="215" loading="lazy" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p>Data: <a href="https://planindex.co.uk/planning-decision-times/lancaster">Planning decision times, from PlanIndex</a></p>