🗓 Submission Timing Intelligence
When is the best month — and weekday — to submit your planning application? Real approval-rate + decision-speed data from 144,135 dated decisions across UK LPAs.
📊 Durham
Months below refer to when you submit, not when the decision lands. Each application is bucketed by its received_date month — but the approval rate measures the final outcome, whenever it landed (60-90 days later typically). The lag is already baked into the signal: "submit in December = 100% approval" already accounts for the fact that those decisions arrive in Feb/March. The month-by-month table below shows the lag explicitly so you can see the full cycle.
Use the type chips above to filter to the application type you are actually making — and treat cross-council comparisons of the mixed number with care, since the mix depends on which source fed each council.
🎯 Inverse view — "I want a decision in [month], when do I submit?"
Based on this LPA's typical decision-lag of 67 days (~2 months), the table below shows when to submit if you want your decision to land in a specific month.
| If you want a decision in... | Submit by (approx.) | That submit month's approval rate |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | Submit by end of Nov | 100% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Dec | 100% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Jan | 92.3% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Feb | 100% |
| May | Submit by end of Mar | 100% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Apr | 100% |
| Jul | Submit by end of May | 100% |
| Aug | Submit by end of Jun | 100% |
| Sep | Submit by end of Jul | 94.1% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Aug | 96.8% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Sep | 100% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Oct | 95.3% |
Inverse calculation is approximate — actual decision time varies (range typically ±30 days). Use the Decision Time Predictor for tighter forecasts.
⏱ Decision speed by application type
How long different application types actually take at Durham. Householder apps are statutorily 8 weeks; full/major are 13 weeks — but the real numbers usually drift. This is what the data says, not what the statute says.
→ Fastest: Prior Approval (29 days). Slowest: Full / Major (82 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 884 | 93.9% | 82 d (12 wk) | 30–315 d | Filter ▸ |
| Discharge Conditions | 410 | 98.5% | 62 d (9 wk) | 2–328 d | ✕ clear |
| Tree Works / TPO | 395 | 90.1% | 41 d (6 wk) | 6–200 d | Filter ▸ |
| Amendment / NMA | 149 | 96.6% | 36 d (5 wk) | 1–180 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement | 105 | 91.4% | 66 d (9 wk) | 31–185 d | Filter ▸ |
| Heritage / LB | 105 | 98.1% | 74 d (11 wk) | 35–294 d | Filter ▸ |
| Prior Approval | 11 | 90.9% | 29 d (4 wk) | 25–56 d | Filter ▸ |
| Lawful Development (low sample) | 2 | 0% | 88 d (13 wk) | 56–119 d | Filter ▸ |
| Listed Building (low sample) | 1 | 100% | 54 d (8 wk) | 54–54 d | Filter ▸ |
ⓘ Month-by-month stats above are filtered to Discharge Conditions only. The table above always shows all types so you can compare.
📅 Month-by-month breakdown — full submit→decide cycle
Each row shows the complete journey for applications received in that month: how long they took, when the decision actually landed, and what % were approved. The approval rate already accounts for everything that happens between submission and decision — the lag is part of the signal.
| Submit month | Decisions | Approval rate | Median lag | Decision typically lands in | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26 |
92.3%
|
70d (~10wk) | → March | 16–184d |
| February | 49 |
100%
|
61d (~9wk) | → April | 9–163d |
| March | 27 |
100%
|
57d (~8wk) | → May | 4–107d |
| April | 27 |
100%
|
45d (~6wk) | → June | 6–97d |
| May | 38 |
100%
|
46d (~7wk) | → July | 15–82d |
| June | 23 |
100%
|
27d (~4wk) | → July | 3–57d |
| July | 17 |
94.1%
|
84d (~12wk) | → October | 3–328d |
| August | 31 |
96.8%
|
63d (~9wk) | → October | 2–307d |
| September | 58 |
100%
|
75d (~11wk) | → December | 8–265d |
| October | 43 |
95.3%
|
75d (~11wk) | → January | 5–280d |
| November | 39 |
100%
|
65d (~9wk) | → January | 2–203d |
| December | 32 |
100%
|
66d (~9wk) | → February | 4–183d |
Read across each row: submit in [month] → wait [median lag] → decision lands in [target month] → outcome [approval rate]. The approval rate is the final outcome of the whole cycle, not a snapshot.
🗓 Day-of-week patterns
| Day received | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 89 | 100% | 55 |
| Tuesday | 84 | 95.2% | 56 |
| Wednesday | 67 | 100% | 76 |
| Thursday | 102 | 99% | 63 |
| Friday | 68 | 98.5% | 64 |
📊 Data sources & freshness
Timing is a tactical edge, not strategic justification. Use alongside the constraint check + pattern fingerprint to make the case strong on substance, then time it to land well.
- planning_applications.received_date (updated Daily ingest)
144,135 dated decisions where a submission date and a decision are both known. The submission date is received_date, falling back to validated_date — many council portals publish only the validated date, and the statutory clock runs from it. Approval = approved/granted/permit. Sample size gating: months with fewer than 8 decisions excluded from best/worst recommendation. - Day-of-week patterns
Reflects when applicants choose to submit, which may correlate with applicant type (Monday = professional consultants; Friday = end-of-week DIY submissions). Causality is correlative not causal. - Decision-time outliers
Months showing 200+ day averages are flagged — they reflect older PINS-appeal-derived rows where determinations stretched over many months. Read the Jan/Feb/Nov/Dec numbers (largest samples) as the reliable benchmark.