🗓 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.
📊 East Renfrewshire
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 71 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 | 75% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Dec | 85.3% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Jan | 92.9% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Feb | 63.6% |
| May | Submit by end of Mar | 76.9% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Apr | 75% |
| Jul | Submit by end of May | 93.8% |
| Aug | Submit by end of Jun | 72% |
| Sep | Submit by end of Jul | 62.8% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Aug | 66.7% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Sep | 79.2% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Oct | 80% |
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 East Renfrewshire. 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: Tree Works / TPO (56 days). Slowest: Full / Major (92 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 122 | 62.3% | 92 d (13 wk) | 26–247 d | Filter ▸ |
| Tree Works / TPO | 38 | 100% | 56 d (8 wk) | 2–335 d | Filter ▸ |
| Amendment / NMA | 16 | 93.8% | 59 d (8 wk) | 7–99 d | Filter ▸ |
| Heritage / LB (low sample) | 5 | 80% | 96 d (14 wk) | 56–147 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement (low sample) | 3 | 100% | 59 d (8 wk) | 34–72 d | Filter ▸ |
| Discharge Conditions (low sample) | 2 | 100% | 58 d (8 wk) | 25–91 d | Filter ▸ |
| Listed Building (low sample) | 1 | 0% | 60 d (9 wk) | 60–60 d | Filter ▸ |
| Prior Approval (low sample) | 1 | 0% | 28 d (4 wk) | 28–28 d | Filter ▸ |
| Lawful Development (low sample) | 1 | 0% | 21 d (3 wk) | 21–21 d | Filter ▸ |
📅 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 | 14 |
92.9%
|
75d (~11wk) | → April | 9–215d |
| February | 11 |
63.6%
|
93d (~13wk) | → May | 63–230d |
| March | 13 |
76.9%
|
107d (~15wk) | → July | 44–197d |
| April | 20 |
75%
|
148d (~21wk) | → September | 25–174d |
| May | 16 |
93.8%
|
112d (~16wk) | → September | 60–147d |
| June | 25 |
72%
|
80d (~11wk) | → September | 53–107d |
| July | 43 |
62.8%
|
47d (~7wk) | → September | 13–87d |
| August | 21 |
66.7%
|
31d (~4wk) | → September | 7–123d |
| September | 24 |
79.2%
|
32d (~5wk) | → October | 2–134d |
| October | 5 |
80%
|
145d (~21wk) | → March | 12–335d |
| November | 8 |
75%
|
76d (~11wk) | → February | 44–199d |
| December | 34 |
85.3%
|
58d (~8wk) | → February | 13–247d |
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 | 63 | 71.4% | 79 |
| Tuesday | 41 | 75.6% | 56 |
| Wednesday | 38 | 65.8% | 67 |
| Thursday | 47 | 78.7% | 81 |
| Friday | 47 | 85.1% | 75 |
📊 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.