Determination period: 8, 13 and 16 weeks explained

The planning determination period is eight weeks for most applications, 13 weeks for major development and 16 weeks where an environmental statement accompanies the application. Those periods sit in article 34 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015, and they run from the day after the council receives a valid application. Missing the deadline does not invalidate anything the council later does. It gives you a right of appeal, which is a very different thing from getting a decision.

Where the statutory periods come from

Article 34 sets the time within which a local planning authority must give notice of its decision. The Order does not say what happens if it does not, because the consequence sits elsewhere: section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 gives a right of appeal against non-determination once the period, or any agreed extension, has expired.

There is also a policy layer. The planning guarantee is a government commitment that an application should not spend more than 26 weeks with the authority without a decision, with a fee refund where it does and no extension has been agreed. It is policy rather than statute, the detail has been adjusted more than once, and it is worth checking the current position before relying on a refund.

Performance against these periods is measured and published, which is why councils are keen to agree extensions of time. An application determined at week 30 under an agreed extension counts as on time. The same application decided at week 12 without one does not.

Which period applies to your application

The dividing line is the definition of major development, which sits in article 2 of the same Order.

The 0.5 hectare trigger catches small developers regularly. Nine houses on a 0.6 hectare site is a major application with a 13-week period, a higher fee, wider publicity and, in most authorities, a committee route. Check the site area before you assume the unit count decides it.

Reserved matters applications, applications to vary a condition under section 73 and applications for approval of details all have their own periods, and those are usually eight weeks unless the original permission was for major development.

When the clock starts and what stops it

The period runs from the day after the date on which the authority received a valid application. Not from submission, and not from the date on your receipt. If the council writes to say the fee is short or a document is missing, the clock starts when the last item arrives.

Legally, nothing stops the clock once it has started. In practice, several things stall it:

1. Statutory consultation, which runs 21 days for both neighbour publicity and consultee responses, and which restarts where amended plans are advertised.
2. Consultee holding objections, where the Environment Agency, the lead local flood authority or a highway authority asks for information rather than commenting.
3. Requests for further information from the case officer, which are informal and carry no statutory timetable.
4. Negotiation over amendments, which is usually in your interest and always costs weeks.
5. Section 106 drafting, which frequently sets the real date on any application carrying obligations.

Where the site affects a designated heritage asset, the consultation adds another layer, because the assessment of effects on the setting of a heritage asset often triggers a request for further work from the conservation officer late in the period.

Extensions of time and why agents agree to them

An extension of time has to be agreed in writing between the applicant and the authority. It is a bilateral agreement, not something a council can impose.

Experienced agents agree them anyway, and the reason is arithmetic. A council facing a deadline it cannot meet has two options: refuse on the information before it, or ask for more time. Refusal costs you a fee, an appeal and six months or more. An extension costs you a few weeks.

The judgement changes where the delay is the council's fault and the application is straightforward. Agreeing an open-ended extension on a householder application that has sat untouched for ten weeks rewards inertia. A short, dated extension with a stated purpose is better than an indefinite one.

Ask for three things when you agree an extension. A specific new date rather than "until determined". A statement of what the council will do in that time. And confirmation of who is now handling it, because extensions are often requested when a case officer leaves.

On larger schemes, a planning performance agreement does the same job more formally, setting a programme, named officers and meeting dates. They cost money and they are worth it where the evidence base is complex.

Illustrative example

An illustrative case: a self-builder submits a full application for two dwellings on a plot of 0.2 hectares. Valid on 6 March, so the eight weeks expire on 1 May. Neighbour consultation runs to 27 March. The highway authority responds on 10 April asking for visibility splay dimensions, which are supplied on 17 April. The case officer asks for a revised site plan showing bin storage on 24 April. There is now no prospect of a decision by 1 May, and the officer requests an extension to 29 May. Agreeing it is almost always the right call, because the alternative is a refusal drafted in a week by an officer who has not finished assessing the scheme.

Your options when the council misses the deadline

Once the period has expired without a decision, and without an agreed extension, you can appeal against non-determination. Consider it carefully.

An appeal takes the decision away from the council and gives it to an inspector, which removes any prospect of negotiating amendments. It is slower than most people expect, and on a straightforward application it usually delivers a decision later than simply pressing the council would. It also stops the authority determining the application, so you lose the officer's report and the local knowledge in it.

Where an appeal does make sense is when the council is not going to grant permission whatever you do, or when the delay is being used to extract obligations you do not accept. Then the appeal is a way of moving to the decision-maker who will actually decide.

The gentler options come first. Escalate in writing to the team leader and then the head of development management, with a short chronology. Ask whether the application will be reported under delegated powers or to committee, and when. Where the delay involves maladministration rather than a planning judgement, the council's complaints procedure and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can look at how it was handled, though neither can grant permission.

And check whether the planning guarantee refund applies at 26 weeks, because it is not offered automatically.

What the period does not cover

The determination period ends when the decision notice is issued. Several things people treat as part of it are not.

Discharge of conditions is a separate application with its own fee and its own eight-week period, and conditions worded to bite before work starts have to be discharged first. Build that into the programme, because a scheme with six such conditions can lose a further two months after permission.

Section 106 completion sits outside the period entirely. Councils do not issue the decision until the deed is signed, which is why obligations, rather than the statutory clock, set the date on most schemes that carry them.

The community infrastructure levy process runs on its own timetable after permission, and missing a step there is expensive, so understanding how levy liability arises before the decision arrives is worth the reading.

Building Regulations approval, highway agreements under sections 278 and 38, water and drainage connections and any licence needed under wildlife law are all separate consents with separate timetables. None of them is covered by the eight weeks, and any of them can be the thing that actually delays a start on site.

Scoping the supporting documents early, against the full list of report types, is the single most reliable way to keep an application inside its period, because most overruns start with a document that was commissioned two months late.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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