How long planning decisions take in Rugby

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 63 days, Rugby has moved up 88 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. Prior approval 42 decided 27 days
2. Trees 133 decided 42 days
3. Advertising 19 decided 56 days
4. Conditions 132 decided 57 days
5. Lawful development 47 decided 59 days
6. Heritage and listed buildings 19 decided 71 days
7. Outline 17 decided 96 days

How these types compare nationally

Rugby issued 664 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 95% were approvals: 568 granted against 32 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.