Planning decisions in Swansea

How long Swansea takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 1,719 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.

51 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 56 from receipt
69%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 87% within thirteen
84%approved (UK 90%): 1,339 approved, 251 refused, 39 withdrawn
135 of 388UK rank for speed, up 50 places on last year; 337 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 53 days, 149 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 50 days, 161 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 45 days, 130 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 54 days, 136 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 56 days, 103 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 67 days, 148 decisionsMarApril 2026: 59 days, 146 decisionsAprMay 2026: 64 days, 146 decisionsMayJune 2026: 57 days, 169 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 58 days, 152 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 59 days, 141 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 60 days, 138 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 applications5561%83%79173 of 359
Discharge of conditions4867%over 99%21992 of 310
Lawful development certificates4580%80%19690 of 348
Pre-application advice2376%41%1484 of 6
Tree works4798%95%132240 of 324
Amendments4174%84%126125 of 356
Advertisement consent5368%84%39115 of 320
Listed building consent *7738%95%23249 of 307
Prior approvals *2787%93%2076 of 340

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers99%5184%1,634
Planning committee1%10293%14

Where the register states how the decision was made. 71 decisions did not say.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *3086%100%156
2017 *11427%90%32
2018 *9720%80%26
2019 *5657%83%70
2020 *8529%94%32
2021 *7640%97%38
2022 *5948%93%119
2023 *4886%95%115
2024 *5944%88%49
2025 *5561%73%50
2026 so far5847%84%1,279

* 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 Swansea's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Swansea, or get alerts for Swansea.

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.