How long planning decisions take in Leeds

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 49 days, Leeds 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. Amendments 162 decided 23 days
2. Other 25 decided 25 days
3. Householder 113 decided 29 days
4. Trees 847 decided 29 days
5. Telecoms 10 decided 48 days
6. Conditions 733 decided 50 days
7. Lawful development 726 decided 50 days
8. Prior approval 51 decided 50 days
9. Advertising 157 decided 52 days
10. Full applications 2,396 decided 55 days
11. Outline 16 decided 56 days
12. Heritage and listed buildings 184 decided 58 days
13. Reserved matters 10 decided 88 days

How these types compare nationally

Leeds issued 5,430 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 82% were approvals: 4,017 granted against 883 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.