Planning decisions in West Northamptonshire

How long West Northamptonshire takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 1,981 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.

90 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 52)
27%decided within eight weeks (UK 73%), 52% within thirteen
92%approved (UK 89%): 1,756 approved, 150 refused, 75 withdrawn
316 of 339UK rank for speed, down 32 places on last year; 147 of 339 for approvals
05691 June 2025: 82 days, 305 decisionsJunJuly 2025: 73 days, 343 decisionsJulAugust 2025: 71 days, 326 decisionsAugSeptember 2025: 77 days, 285 decisionsSeptOctober 2025: 79 days, 331 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 73 days, 332 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 79 days, 293 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 85 days, 286 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 107 days, 233 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 124 days, 172 decisionsMarApril 2026: 208 days, 49 decisionsAprJune 2026: 43 days, 1 decisionsJun
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 year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *6430%91%256
2017 *5659%94%125
2018 *6241%94%295
2019 *5652%95%105
2020 *5653%98%1,002
2021 *3570%96%201
2022 *7732%87%100
2023 *5257%96%190
2024 *5261%over 99%686
2025 *1156%87%214

* 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

Built nightly from West Northamptonshire's planning register. Ranks are among the 339 published councils. See planning applications in West Northamptonshire, appeals, or get alerts for West Northamptonshire.

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 Withdrawn and undecided applications are not timed.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.