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Decision times · South West

How long planning decisions take in Mid Devon

55 days. Ranked 102 of 343.

In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Mid Devon took 55 days from submission to decision — 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 999 decisions where the council published both dates.

55 days
Median decision 1 day inside the eight week target
102 of 343
UK rank up 13 places in a year
74%
Within eight weeks 88% within thirteen
105 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Mid Devon compares

Year to September 2026

Mid Devon decides faster than the country as a whole: 1 day below the national median of 56 days. Nationally 55% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 74%.

The average here is 63 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 105 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 744 74%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 131 13%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 124 12%

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.

Mid Devon: 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 55 102 of 343
June 2026 54 105 of 328
March 2026 54 123 of 243
December 2025 52 124 of 236
September 2025 53 115 of 324
June 2025 55 104 of 313
March 2025 55 106 of 315
December 2024 55 105 of 319

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 53 days, Mid Devon has moved up 13 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. Prior approval 90 decided 27 days
  2. Amendments 32 decided 28 days
  3. Outline 20 decided 40 days
  4. Trees 169 decided 41 days
  5. Advertising 24 decided 54 days
  6. Lawful development 46 decided 55 days
  7. Full applications 299 decided 56 days
  8. Heritage and listed buildings 116 decided 56 days
  9. Householder 188 decided 56 days

How these types compare nationally

What Mid Devon decides

Year to September 2026

Mid Devon issued 999 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 93% were approvals: 805 granted against 58 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 Mid Devon?

The median planning application decided by Mid Devon in the year to September 2026 took 55 days from submission to decision, 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 999 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 102 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Mid Devon meet the eight week target?

74% of the 999 decisions Mid Devon made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 88% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 105 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Mid Devon faster or slower than average?

Mid Devon is faster than average: its median of 55 days is 1 day below the national median of 56 days.

Is Mid Devon getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 53 days, Mid Devon has moved up 13 places in the table. Its median has risen by 2 days.

What proportion of applications does Mid Devon approve?

93% of the clear-cut outcomes Mid Devon issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 805 granted against 58 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Mid Devon planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 55 days from application to decision (1 day inside the eight week target), across 999 decisions with both dates published. 74% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 88% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 105 days. Ranked 102 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 93% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.