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Decision times · South East

How long planning decisions take in Wokingham

55 days. Ranked 97 of 343.

In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Wokingham took 55 days from submission to decision — 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 2,040 decisions where the council published both dates.

55 days
Median decision 1 day inside the eight week target
97 of 343
UK rank down 15 places in a year
57%
Within eight weeks 87% within thirteen
104 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Wokingham compares

Year to September 2026

Wokingham 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 57%.

The average here is 62 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 104 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 1,154 57%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 629 31%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 257 13%

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.

Wokingham: 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 97 of 343
June 2026 55 118 of 328
March 2026 54 113 of 243
December 2025 50 101 of 236
September 2025 50 82 of 324
June 2025 54 76 of 313
March 2025 54 77 of 315
December 2024 54 78 of 319

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 50 days, Wokingham has moved down 15 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. Trees 28 decided 13 days
  2. Outline 76 decided 41 days
  3. Amendments 17 decided 51 days
  4. Conditions 42 decided 64 days
  5. Full applications 38 decided 70 days

How these types compare nationally

What Wokingham decides

Year to September 2026

Wokingham issued 2,040 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 92% were approvals: 1,695 granted against 144 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 Wokingham?

The median planning application decided by Wokingham in the year to September 2026 took 55 days from submission to decision, 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 2,040 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 97 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Wokingham meet the eight week target?

57% of the 2,040 decisions Wokingham made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 87% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 104 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Wokingham faster or slower than average?

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

Is Wokingham getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 50 days, Wokingham has moved down 15 places in the table. Its median has risen by 5 days.

What proportion of applications does Wokingham approve?

92% of the clear-cut outcomes Wokingham issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 1,695 granted against 144 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Wokingham planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 55 days from application to decision (1 day inside the eight week target), across 2,040 decisions with both dates published. 57% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 87% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 104 days. Ranked 97 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 92% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.