How long does planning permission take is answered first by the statutory period for the application type, eight weeks for most applications, thirteen for a major one and sixteen where an environmental statement is needed, counted from the date the authority validates the application, and then by everything that stretches it: the validation itself, the consultation, the officer's questions, the extension of time agreed, the committee cycle. How long does a planning appeal take is a separate timetable set by the Planning Inspectorate, and it runs from the appeal's validation rather than the application's. This page sets out the periods, where the weeks go, and where the free timeline sheet on this site reads the clock for your application.
The statutory periods, counted from validation
The period is set by the type: eight weeks for most applications, thirteen for major development and sixteen where an environmental impact assessment applies, and it runs from validation, the date on the authority's letter, not from submission. An application returned as invalid for a missing survey has not started. The authority may agree an extension of time with the applicant in writing, and the extended date becomes the one from which non-determination can be appealed. The guidance cited below states the periods; the timeline sheet on this site reads the weeks left from them and from your validation date.
Where the weeks go
The first fortnight is validation, which fails on a missing document more often than on anything else. Consultation runs for twenty-one days from the notices and the letters, and statutory consultees have their own periods to respond; a highway authority or an environment body that has not answered is the usual reason a decision waits. The officer's questions, the amended plans and the re-consultation they trigger come next, and a case going to committee waits for the cycle. Most applications that overrun do so at the consultation and the committee, which is why the sheet takes the outstanding consultees and the committee week as inputs.
How long a planning appeal takes
An appeal against refusal or non-determination is made to the Planning Inspectorate within the time limit the guidance sets, and is run by written representations, a hearing or an inquiry depending on the case; the Inspectorate publishes its own timetable and current performance, and an appeal is measured in months rather than weeks. The record keeps the appeal against the application with the date it was validated, so its clock is read on its own; the appeals guide on this site sets out the routes and the guidance cited below is where the timetable is published.
Questions people ask about how long does planning permission take
Can an authority take longer than the statutory period?
Yes, with an extension of time agreed in writing, or simply by not deciding, in which case the applicant may appeal against non-determination from the end of the period. The timeline sheet on this site shows that week.
Does pre-application advice make a decision faster?
It makes validation and the officer's questions shorter, which is where most weeks are lost; it does not shorten the statutory period or the consultation. The pre-app guide on this site sets out what it covers.
How long does a planning appeal take?
Months, on a timetable the Planning Inspectorate sets by procedure and publishes with its current performance; the appeals guidance cited below is where it is read on the day. The record keeps the appeal's own dates against the application.
Sources
- GOV.UK planning practice guidance, Determining a planning application: statutory periods, extensions of time, non-determination
- GOV.UK planning practice guidance, Consultation and pre-decision matters: statutory consultees and their response periods
- GOV.UK planning practice guidance, Appeals: how a refusal or non-determination is appealed and the Planning Inspectorate's procedures