New research from The Strategic Land Group and Searchland has revealed that planning applications for housing schemes are taking more than three times longer to determine than they did in 2010, with developers now waiting a median of 439 days for a decision on outline applications.
The report, The Planning Slowdown, analysed around 132,000 residential planning applications for schemes of 10 homes or more submitted in England between 2010 and 2025. It found that the median determination period increased from 107 days in 2010 to 349 days in 2025, a rise of more than 225%.
The slowdown is affecting every part of the system. Applications for smaller schemes of between 10 and 50 homes have seen some of the sharpest increases, with determination times more than tripling over the period. The research also identified a growing divide between applications determined by planning officers and those referred to planning committees. In 2010, committee decisions took 38 days longer than delegated applications. By 2025, that gap had widened to 278 days, with committee-determined schemes taking a median of 517 days to secure a decision.
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Paul Smith, Managing Director of The Strategic Land Group, said: “Applications that were taking around 15 weeks to determine in 2010 are now taking close to a year. The fundamental problem is the increasing complexity of the system, with applicants being asked to submit more information to demonstrate compliance with a growing list of policy and regulatory requirements. If the Government is serious about increasing housing delivery, improving decision-making times by removing the grit from the system must be a priority.”
Hugh Gibbs, Co-Founder of Searchland, added: “What this research does is bring robust evidence to that conversation, using a large-scale dataset to reveal long-term trends. The findings quantify what many developers and planning professionals have known for years. For an industry under pressure to tackle the housing crisis, better data is essential.”
The report identifies some signs of improvement over the past year but warns that more fundamental reform will be needed to reverse the long-term decline. SLG points to greater policy stability, increased resources for planning officers and a higher proportion of delegated decisions as priorities for improving the system.
The full report can be found at strategiclandgroup.co.uk.
