For developers and owners with a lender's date
How Long Does Planning Permission Take? The Real 2026 Timescales
Sviatoslav JerdetchiiCEO & Founder of Craftex. Updated , 7 min read
The short answer
By law a council has 8 weeks to decide a minor application, 13 weeks for a major one and 16 weeks where an environmental impact assessment is needed. In practice most London schemes take longer, on an extension you agree in writing.
- Only 19% of major applications in England were decided inside the statutory 13 weeks in April to June 2026.
- The clock starts when the application is valid: documents in, fee paid.
- Consultation, committee, a Section 106 and the Mayor's referral add weeks each; a pre-app and a complete submission take them out.
- Once granted, you have 3 years to start on site unless the decision says otherwise.
How long does planning permission take? By law, 8 weeks for a minor application, 13 weeks for a major one and 16 weeks with an environmental impact assessment. In practice, only 19% of major applications in England were decided inside 13 weeks in April to June 2026. Most of the rest ran on an agreed extension of time.
That gap between the law and the calendar is where development programmes slip. Your lender's drawdown date, your option deadline and your build start all hang on a decision the council controls.
This guide gives the statutory periods, the real 2026 figures and the stages where months disappear. It also shows what we do to shorten them, as the planning consultant London developers bring in early. Got a site and a date? Book a site visit and we will map the route with you.
The statutory answer: how long planning permission takes by law
The decision periods are set by the Development Management Procedure Order 2015. The clock starts the day after the council receives a valid application: every required document lodged and the fee paid. An application that is missing a document has not started the clock.
| Application | Statutory period | Can it be extended? |
|---|---|---|
| Minor and other development (most schemes under 10 homes or 1,000 m²) | 8 weeks | Yes, in writing, by agreement |
| Major development | 13 weeks | Yes, in writing, by agreement |
| Any application with an environmental impact assessment | 16 weeks | Yes, in writing, by agreement |
| Prior approval under permitted development | 56 days | Development may begin if the council does not respond in time |
| Pre-application advice | No statutory period | Each borough sets its own target |
The periods only bind the council in one direction. If it misses the date without your written agreement, you gain a right of appeal for non-determination. Nothing forces the council to decide on day 56 or day 91.
What actually happens in 2026
The Ministry of Housing publishes quarterly figures for every district authority in England. The latest, for April to June 2026, show how far the calendar has drifted from the statute.
Read those together and the picture is clear. Councils hit their targets because the targets move. For major schemes, 77% of decisions involved a performance agreement or an extension of time. The statutory 13 weeks has become the starting point of a negotiation, not the deadline.
London is tighter still. In April to June 2026, London boroughs received 14,300 applications and decided 14,100. They granted 84% of them, the lowest share of any English region, against 88% nationally. More refusals mean more resubmissions and appeals, and both add months.
Where the months go: the stages of an application
A planning application is a chain of stages. Each one can hold the file for weeks, and most are outside the council's statutory clock.
- Validation. The council checks the application against its local list. A missing survey, a wrong fee or a plan without a scale bar sends it back. The clock has not started.
- Consultation. Neighbours, statutory consultees and the public get at least 21 days. Objections and a consultee's request for more information extend the officer's work.
- Officer assessment. The case officer reads the scheme against the local plan and the London Plan. Amendments asked for at this stage usually come with a request for an extension of time.
- Mayor's referral. Schemes of more than 150 homes, or large floorspace, go to the Mayor of London. The borough cannot issue its decision until 14 days have passed from the Mayor's confirmation that he has its proposed decision.
- Committee. Schemes the officer cannot decide alone wait for the next committee date. Deferrals push a scheme to the following month.
- Section 106. A resolution to grant is not a permission. The agreement has to be drafted, negotiated and signed before the decision notice is issued.
- Decision notice and conditions. Pre-commencement conditions then have to be discharged before you can start, which is its own application with its own period.
A scheme with no pre-app, a committee deferral and a slow Section 106 can spend a year in this chain. That is the planning guarantee's limit: government policy says no application should spend more than a year with decision-makers.
How to shorten planning permission on a development scheme
The council's clock is not something you control. The length of the chain is. These are the five things that take the most time out of it, in the order we do them.
1. Pre-application advice before you design in detail
Pre-application planning advice tells you what officers will resist before you pay for a full design. It costs a few weeks at the start. It saves a round of amendments in the middle, when every amendment arrives with a request to extend.
2. A complete submission that validates first time
The local validation list is public. A submission checked against it, with every survey and statement in, starts the clock on the day it lands. An incomplete one can lose a month before the clock starts.
3. An extension of time on your terms, not the council's
An extension must be in writing with a date. Agree it when the officer has a real reason and a date you can hold your lender to. Do not sign an open-ended one. For a large scheme, a planning performance agreement set before submission fixes the timetable and the meetings with the council.
4. Section 106 and conditions drafted alongside the application
The heads of terms for the Section 106 can be agreed while the officer assesses the scheme. The pre-commencement conditions can be anticipated and the surveys for them commissioned early. Both move the first day on site forward by weeks.
5. A scheme the council can approve and you can build
Officers test a scheme against policy. Lenders test it against cost. A scheme costed as it is designed does not go back for a redesign after consent. A redesign means a second application and a second clock.
At Allitsen Road in St John's Wood, a derelict club in a conservation area became four costed design options in four weeks. Each came with a planning strategy. Each was tested against the Westminster City Plan and the London Plan before a drawing went to the council.
After consent: how long planning permission lasts
Planning permission in England lasts three years from the date of the grant, unless the council sets a different period in the decision. You must make a material start on site within that time, with the pre-commencement conditions discharged first.
Two things catch developers out after consent.
- Conditions have their own clock. A discharge of conditions application is a separate submission. Allow for it in the programme, and submit the surveys and details as early as the condition allows.
- Section 73 cannot buy time. An application to vary a condition can change the design or the hours of work. It cannot extend the time within which the development must be started. If the three years are running out, the only route is a start on site or a new application.
Where a permission is challenged in court, the rules on the implementation period changed in February 2026. If a legal challenge is possible on your scheme, take advice on the dates before you rely on the three years.
Prior approval and appeals: the other two clocks
Two routes run on different timescales and are often confused with full planning permission.
Prior approval under permitted development, for example office to residential under Class MA, gives the council 56 days from the date it receives the application. If it has not told you whether approval is given or refused by then, the development can begin.
Councils sometimes ask applicants to agree a longer period in writing. You do not have to, and we rarely advise it.
Appeals are decided by the Planning Inspectorate, not the council. In the 12 months to September 2026, the median time from a valid appeal to a decision was 18 weeks for written representations. Hearings took 24 weeks and inquiries 27 weeks. Only 31% of planning appeals were allowed in July to September 2026.
Our planning appeal guide explains when to appeal and when a better application is the faster route.
Hired Craftex for our conversion project. We had to convert a 600m2 office into 8 apartments. Guys did an excellent job in terms of program efficiency and quality of the finishes which gave us a big upside to exit the project 2 months faster than other competitors’ timelines.
What this means for your programme
A planning decision sits on the critical path of every development scheme. Treat it like one: with a route, dates and someone accountable for each stage.
We run planning and construction under one roof. Craftex has worked this way since 2016, with around 60% of our labour in-house and every project delivered ahead of programme and on budget. Our Development Director has taken more than 10,000 homes through planning. We take on construction projects from £100,000.
If your scheme has a lender's date, a site and no clear planning programme yet, book a site visit. We will map the route with dates, cost the scheme alongside it and show you where the weeks are at risk.
Before you submit
- Pre-app response in hand, and the scheme amended to it
- Submission checked against the borough's validation list
- Statutory period and the date of any extension written into the programme
- Section 106 heads of terms agreed with the officer
- Pre-commencement conditions anticipated, surveys commissioned
- Scheme costed, so the consented version is the one you can build
- Non-determination appeal date diarised in case the council stalls
