Planning decisions in Dacorum

How long Dacorum takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 1,635 decisions it made in the twelve months to September 2026. Days run from validation to decision, the clock the council reports against; the wait from receipt is shown beside it. How the figures are made.

48 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 50 from receipt
81%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 93% within thirteen
88%approved (UK 90%): 1,375 approved, 181 refused, 73 withdrawn
61 of 388UK rank for speed, down 12 places on last year; 268 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 12 days, 16 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 22 days, 32 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 35 days, 119 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 53 days, 106 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 45 days, 180 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 45 days, 165 decisionsMarApril 2026: 55 days, 179 decisionsAprMay 2026: 52 days, 184 decisionsMayJune 2026: 49 days, 158 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 50 days, 192 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 51 days, 143 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 52 days, 161 decisionsSept
Median days from validation to decision, by month of decision. Dashed line: UK median (54 days). Grid at 56 and 91 days, the eight and thirteen week targets.

By kind of application

KindMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisionsUK rank
Householder applications5188%92%50431 of 200
Tree works1299%99%26110 of 324
Discharge of conditions5462%88%215173 of 310
Full applications5750%77%176166 of 359
Lawful development certificates4694%88%15892 of 348
Amendments4171%77%115123 of 356
Listed building consent5483%82%9335 of 307
Prior approvals3589%85%64161 of 340
Advertisement consent *5095%90%2143 of 320

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers99%4989%1,573
Planning committee1%8091%11

Where the register states how the decision was made. 51 decisions did not say.

Appeals

55 appeals against Dacorum decisions were decided by the Planning Inspectorate in the window, 30 for every 100 refusals; 25% were allowed. Every appeal in Dacorum.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *6143%93%103
2017 *5660%96%47
2018 *5365%100%51
2019 *5655%93%95
2020 *2683%92%116
2021 *5377%97%33
2022 *5067%96%27
2023 *5750%85%26
2024 *5651%86%93
2025 *5748%87%92
2026 so far5170%87%1,468

* Years from our archive, which carries no validation date: timed from receipt, so a few days longer than the live years above them.

Past their target date now

Decided in the last three weeks

Built nightly from Dacorum's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Dacorum, appeals, or get alerts for Dacorum.

About these figures

How are decision times measured?
Days from the date the council validated the application to the date it decided it, for applications approved or refused in the window. That is the clock councils report against and the official statistics use. Each council’s page also shows the count from receipt, which is what the applicant actually waited. Withdrawn and undecided applications are not timed.
Why do these figures differ from the council’s own?
Councils count an agreed extension of time as decided on time; we treat the calendar as the calendar. Our figures are also live and rolling, where official statistics are quarterly and annual. So a council’s own within-eight-weeks figure will usually sit a little above ours.
What counts as approved?
Approval rate is approvals divided by approvals plus refusals. Withdrawals, and decisions whose outcome the register does not state, are counted in the totals but not in the rate.
Why is a council missing?
A council is published when it has at least 25 timed decisions in the window and its register’s decision data passes our consistency checks. Councils that fail are listed with the reason rather than shown with a number that would mislead.
How often is this updated?
Nightly, from the decisions we collect from every council register we monitor. The window is the twelve months to the last complete month.