Planning decisions in Edinburgh

How long Edinburgh takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 4,582 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.

43 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 47 from receipt
65%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 88% within thirteen
88%approved (UK 90%): 3,802 approved, 526 refused, 212 withdrawn
26 of 388UK rank for speed, up 10 places on last year; 278 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 14 days, 69 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 29 days, 250 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 33 days, 335 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 57 days, 332 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 61 days, 364 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 43 days, 418 decisionsMarApril 2026: 45 days, 451 decisionsAprMay 2026: 57 days, 512 decisionsMayJune 2026: 53 days, 528 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 46 days, 455 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 45 days, 469 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 50 days, 399 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
Full applications5747%82%1,605174 of 359
Tree works1597%98%92515 of 324
Listed building consent5651%93%916122 of 307
Lawful development certificates4261%67%38366 of 348
Prior approvals1599%94%27912 of 340
Advertisement consent5060%86%18158 of 320
Amendments3773%91%162106 of 356
Pre-application advice *19100%100%172 of 6
Other *2856%100%167 of 35

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers97%4290%4,436
Planning committee3%14235%131

Where the register states how the decision was made. 15 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 far5057%87%3,928

* 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 388 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.