Planning decisions in Edinburgh

How long Edinburgh takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 2,736 decisions it made in the twelve months to August 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.

52 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 52); 54 from receipt
60%decided within eight weeks (UK 73%), 89% within thirteen
86%approved (UK 89%): 1,572 approved, 261 refused, 111 withdrawn
152 of 321UK rank for speed, down 116 places on last year; 250 of 321 for approvals
05691 September 2025: 94 days, 73 decisionsSeptOctober 2025: 35 days, 107 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 50 days, 105 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 13 days, 126 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 12 days, 53 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 32 days, 128 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 48 days, 335 decisionsMarApril 2026: 53 days, 410 decisionsAprMay 2026: 59 days, 445 decisionsMayJune 2026: 56 days, 476 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 55 days, 435 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 57 days, 454 decisionsAug
Median days from validation to decision, by month of decision. Dashed line: UK median (52 days). Grid at 56 and 91 days, the eight and thirteen week targets.

By kind of application

KindMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisionsUK rank
Full applications (including householder)5556%84%884157 of 302
Tree works3681%93%623104 of 259
Listed building consent5942%91%540145 of 200
Lawful development certificates4066%69%23351 of 253
Prior approvals1598%94%1616 of 168
Advertisement consent4863%84%12328 of 190

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers98%5087%2,670
Planning committee2%11226%43

Where the register states how the decision was made. 23 decisions did not say.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *5652%85%318
2017 *5251%100%63
2018 *4859%79%35
2019 *5357%71%30
2020 *4061%85%36
2021 *2988%14%1,035
2022 *5161%93%345
2023 *6938%91%195
2024 *4561%100%221
2025 *5942%73%119
2026 so far5455%86%2,736

* 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 Edinburgh's planning register. Ranks are among the 321 published councils. See planning applications in Edinburgh, or get alerts for Edinburgh.

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.