Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · North West

How long planning decisions take in Wigan

77 days. Ranked 41 of 45.

In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by Wigan took 77 days from submission to decision — 21 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 653 decisions where the council published both dates.

77 days
Median decision 21 days beyond the eight week target
41 of 45
UK rank First measured window
28%
Within eight weeks 64% within thirteen
220 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Wigan compares

Year to December 2026

Wigan takes longer than the country as a whole: 20 days above the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 28%.

The average here is 124 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 220 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 181 28%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 239 37%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 233 36%

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.

Wigan: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
December 2026 77 41 of 45

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. Lawful development 16 decided 62 days
  2. Amendments 21 decided 66 days
  3. Outline 11 decided 70 days
  4. Trees 43 decided 78 days
  5. Householder 165 decided 79 days
  6. Advertising 14 decided 85 days
  7. Conditions 55 decided 98 days
  8. Full applications 114 decided 148 days

How these types compare nationally

What Wigan decides

Year to December 2026

Wigan issued 653 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 89% were approvals: 425 granted against 53 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 Wigan?

The median planning application decided by Wigan in the year to December 2026 took 77 days from submission to decision, 21 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 653 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 41 of 45 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Wigan meet the eight week target?

28% of the 653 decisions Wigan made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 64% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 220 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Wigan faster or slower than average?

Wigan is slower than average: its median of 77 days is 20 days above the national median of 57 days.

What proportion of applications does Wigan approve?

89% of the clear-cut outcomes Wigan issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 425 granted against 53 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Wigan planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 77 days from application to decision (21 days beyond the eight week target), across 653 decisions with both dates published. 28% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 64% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 220 days. Ranked 41 of 45 UK councils on decision speed (national median 57 days). 89% 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="wigan" defer></script>

If your CMS strips scripts, use the frame directly:

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