Sources and method
How the council planning figures are built, what each measure means, and how to reuse them. Figures run to June 2026.
Sources
Every figure comes from published government data. We check for new releases each week and refresh when one appears.
- MHCLG District planning application statistics (PS2) - full datasetFetched 2026-09-28
- Planning Inspectorate Casework DatabaseFetched 2026-09-28
- planning.data.gov.uk organisationsFetched 2026-09-28
- planning.data.gov.uk conservation areasFetched 2026-09-28
- planning.data.gov.uk Article 4 direction areasFetched 2026-09-28
What each measure means
Decisions
Householder applications decided by the council over the last four quarters. Householder applications cover work to an existing house, such as extensions, loft conversions and garages. New dwellings and changes of use are not included.
Granted
The share of those decisions that granted permission, with or without conditions.
Within 8 weeks, no extension
The share of decisions made within the statutory 8 weeks without any extension of time. This is the figure we rank councils on for speed.
Extension of time
The share of decisions made under an extension of time: a new deadline agreed between the council and the applicant, usually beyond 8 weeks. We also report how many of these were then decided by the agreed date.
Appeals allowed
Of householder appeals the Planning Inspectorate decided in the same four quarters, the share it allowed. We count appeals whose development type is householder, through either the householder appeal service or the full planning appeal route, with an outcome of allowed, dismissed or split. The wait is the median time from the appeal start date to the decision.
Why extensions of time are shown separately
A decision made under an agreed extension of time counts as on time in the government's own performance measure, even when it takes months. In the year to June 2026, 32.3%of householder decisions in England were made this way. Folding them into an "on time" figure hides how long homeowners actually wait, so we report the share decided within 8 weeks with no extension, and the extension share alongside it.
The time bands in the source data (8 to 13 weeks, and so on) cover only decisions made without an extension. The share taking over 26 weeks therefore understates long waits.
Ranking and council changes
Councils are ranked only when they made 100 or more householder decisions in the last four quarters. Below that, a few decisions swing the percentages too far for a fair comparison, so those councils appear in the table without a rank. Ties share a rank.
Several councils have merged since 2019, such as North Yorkshire in 2023. A merged council's figures start when it first reported. We do not add together the councils it replaced. The series begins in 2008, the first year the source splits decisions by time taken.
Conservation areas and Article 4
We count the conservation areas and Article 4 direction areas each council has published to planning.data.gov.uk. Not every council has published its data yet, and records supplied by Historic England are not credited to a council. A council showing no Article 4 data may still have Article 4 directions in force, so check with the council before relying on permitted development rights.
Reuse and citation
The source data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, and you are welcome to reuse our tables and charts on the same terms. Please cite:
buildwiz.uk council planning statistics, year to June 2026. https://buildwiz.uk/planning/councils
The full table is available as a CSV download. Journalists with questions about the data can contact us.