How long planning decisions take in Manchester

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 53 days, Manchester has moved up 17 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. Trees 176 decided 38 days
2. Amendments 259 decided 39 days
3. Prior approval 93 decided 42 days
4. Outline 18 decided 46 days
5. Other 33 decided 53 days
6. Advertising 183 decided 54 days
7. Conditions 1,012 decided 55 days
8. Heritage and listed buildings 168 decided 55 days
9. Householder 590 decided 55 days
10. Lawful development 213 decided 55 days
11. Full applications 538 decided 56 days

How these types compare nationally

Manchester issued 3,288 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 88% were approvals: 2,632 granted against 352 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.