Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · North West

How long planning decisions take in St. Helens

72 days.

In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by St. Helens took 72 days from submission to decision — 16 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 344 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.

72 days
Median decision 16 days beyond the eight week target
31%
Within eight weeks 63% within thirteen
324 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How St. Helens compares

Year to December 2026

St. Helens takes longer than the country as a whole: 15 days above the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 31%.

The average here is 146 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 324 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 105 31%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 111 32%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 128 37%

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.

St. Helens: 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 67 29 of 38
December 2025 63 12 of 24
September 2025 61 16 of 27
June 2025 59 18 of 31
March 2025 59 19 of 30
December 2024 60 39 of 57

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. Trees 14 decided 54 days
  2. Lawful development 20 decided 55 days
  3. Householder 57 decided 63 days
  4. Amendments 24 decided 70 days
  5. Conditions 72 decided 122 days
  6. Full applications 66 decided 123 days

How these types compare nationally

What St. Helens decides

Year to December 2026

St. Helens issued 344 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 93% were approvals: 294 granted against 23 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 St. Helens?

The median planning application decided by St. Helens in the year to December 2026 took 72 days from submission to decision, 16 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 344 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date.

Does St. Helens meet the eight week target?

31% of the 344 decisions St. Helens made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 63% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 324 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is St. Helens faster or slower than average?

St. Helens is slower than average: its median of 72 days is 15 days above the national median of 57 days.

What proportion of applications does St. Helens approve?

93% of the clear-cut outcomes St. Helens issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 294 granted against 23 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

St. Helens planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 72 days from application to decision (16 days beyond the eight week target), across 344 decisions with both dates published. 31% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 63% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 324 days. 93% 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="st-helens" defer></script>

If your CMS strips scripts, use the frame directly:

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