Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · Yorkshire and The Humber

How long planning decisions take in York

59 days.

In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by York took 59 days from submission to decision — 3 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 1,437 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.

59 days
Median decision 3 days beyond the eight week target
41%
Within eight weeks 76% within thirteen
145 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How York compares

Year to December 2026

York takes longer than the country as a whole: 2 days above the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 41%.

The average here is 80 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 145 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 595 41%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 492 34%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 350 24%

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.

York: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
June 2026 57 27 of 39
March 2026 57 22 of 38
December 2025 56 7 of 24
September 2025 57 14 of 27
June 2025 62 21 of 31
March 2025 63 26 of 30

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. Telecoms 72 decided 20 days
  2. Amendments 34 decided 30 days
  3. Householder 13 decided 38 days
  4. Trees 226 decided 52 days
  5. Other 15 decided 55 days
  6. Lawful development 88 decided 57 days
  7. Conditions 174 decided 59 days
  8. Full applications 605 decided 70 days
  9. Advertising 45 decided 71 days
  10. Heritage and listed buildings 90 decided 89 days

How these types compare nationally

What York decides

Year to December 2026

York issued 1,437 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 89% were approvals: 1,203 granted against 154 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 York?

The median planning application decided by York in the year to December 2026 took 59 days from submission to decision, 3 days beyond the eight week target. That is measured across 1,437 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date.

Does York meet the eight week target?

41% of the 1,437 decisions York made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 76% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 145 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is York faster or slower than average?

York is slower than average: its median of 59 days is 2 days above the national median of 57 days.

What proportion of applications does York approve?

89% of the clear-cut outcomes York issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 1,203 granted against 154 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

York planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 59 days from application to decision (3 days beyond the eight week target), across 1,437 decisions with both dates published. 41% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 76% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 145 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="york" defer></script>

If your CMS strips scripts, use the frame directly:

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