Extension of time agreements on a planning application

An extension of time planning application agreement is a written agreement between the applicant and the local planning authority that pushes back the date by which the council must determine the application. It is made under article 34 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015, it has to be in writing, and it has one consequence people underestimate: it moves your right to appeal for non-determination to the new date. Everything else about it is a matter of judgement, and the judgement usually turns on whether the officer is going to recommend approval.

What the agreement changes and what it does not

The agreement changes one thing. The period within which the authority must give notice of its decision.

It does not change the application, the fee, the publicity that has already happened or the policies against which the proposal will be judged. It does not commit the authority to any particular outcome, and an officer who asks for an extension so that a section 106 can be completed is not promising to recommend approval when it is.

It also does not stop the authority determining the application earlier. An extension sets an outer limit, not a target.

The statutory determination periods it extends

Article 34 sets the default periods: eight weeks for most applications, 13 weeks for major development, and 16 weeks where the application is accompanied by an environmental statement. The period runs from the date the application is validated, not the date it was submitted, which is why a fortnight lost at validation is a fortnight lost from the whole programme.

Article 34 then allows for "such extended period as may be agreed in writing between the applicant and the authority". There is no statutory maximum. Extensions of several months are common on majors, and serial extensions on a single application are not unusual.

Two practical points on the mechanics. The agreement should specify a date rather than a duration, because "a further eight weeks" invites an argument about when the clock restarted. And it should be made before the current period expires, since an agreement reached after expiry does not retrospectively remove an appeal right that has already arisen.

How the agreement is made and recorded

Usually by email. The officer writes asking for an extension to a stated date and the agent replies agreeing. That exchange satisfies the requirement for writing.

Keep the exchange in the file and check that it appears on the council's public register entry, because the determination date shown there is what everyone else will rely on. Where the extension is agreed to allow a legal agreement to be completed, ask for the date to allow for the council's own signing process as well as yours. Solicitors on both sides need time and the authority's legal team is rarely the fastest part of the chain.

For larger schemes a Planning Performance Agreement does a different job. It is a project management framework covering resourcing, meetings and a timetable, often with a fee paid to the authority. An extension of time is a single date change. The two can sit alongside each other, and a PPA will normally contemplate extensions being agreed within it.

Effect on the right to appeal for non-determination

Section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 gives a right of appeal where the authority has not given notice of its decision within the relevant period. Agree an extension and the relevant period becomes the extended one, so the appeal right arises later.

That is the whole strategic content of the decision. An applicant who expects a refusal and wants the case in front of an inspector gains nothing from extending. An applicant who expects approval and needs the council to keep working gains a great deal, because lodging a non-determination appeal removes the authority's power to determine the application at all, and with it any chance of a negotiated approval.

There is a middle position that works well. Agree a short extension with a specific date and say plainly that you will not agree a further one without a draft officer report. It keeps pressure on without burning the relationship.

Interaction with the fee refund guarantee

The planning guarantee sits in the fees regulations. In broad terms, where an application is not determined within 26 weeks the fee is refunded, and the December 2023 fee changes reduced that period to 16 weeks for householder applications.

The interaction with extensions of time has been amended more than once, and it is the detail most likely to be out of date in anything you read. Check the current text of the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012 as amended before assuming either that an extension protects the council from a refund or that it does not.

Councils have a second reason to ask. Performance against the statutory period, or an agreed extension, feeds the measures used for designation under section 62B of the 1990 Act, which allows applications in a poorly performing area to be made directly to the Secretary of State. An extension keeps a case out of the late column. That is not a criticism, but it is worth knowing whose problem you are solving.

When to refuse to agree an extension

Refuse when the officer recommendation is going to be negative and the reasons are matters of principle you cannot fix. Refuse when the request arrives repeatedly with no draft report and no committee date. Refuse when a land transaction, an option or a funding condition turns on a decision by a fixed date, and say why.

Agree when a statutory consultee response is still outstanding, when a legal agreement is drafted and moving, when the scheme has been amended and needs re-consultation, or when the only alternative is a refusal on grounds that a fortnight would remove.

One more consideration. A non-determination appeal is decided on the case as it stands, and you lose the ability to make further amendments in dialogue with officers. If the scheme still needs work, the appeal is the wrong instrument however frustrating the delay has become.

An illustrative major application timeline

The following sequence is illustrative only and not drawn from a specific case.

A 60-unit residential application is validated on 6 January, giving a 13-week period expiring on 7 April. Consultation closes in early February. The highway authority asks for a revised access arrangement in late February, which takes three weeks to draw and re-consult, and the heads of terms for the section 106 are agreed in mid-March.

At the end of March the officer asks for an extension to 30 June to allow the agreement to be engrossed and the case to reach the May or June committee. Agreeing is the right call: the recommendation is positive, the delay has a defined cause, and a non-determination appeal would take longer than the extension and cost more.

What would change the answer: an officer report circulating internally with a recommendation to refuse on density, no committee date offered, and a second extension requested in June. At that point the extension is buying the authority time to write a refusal, and the appeal clock is worth more than the relationship.

Keep the same discipline you would apply to deemed discharge of conditions after permission, to reserved matters timing on an outline consent, and to the limits of section 96A amendments. Diarise the statutory date, diarise every extended date, and never let one pass without a written record of why.

Your Planning Statement is the document that keeps the policy case straight through all of it. Browse all 66 PlanScope report types and start a draft if a consultee response has opened up a gap in the evidence base. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.