🗓 Submission Timing Intelligence
When is the best month — and weekday — to submit your planning application? Real approval-rate + decision-speed data from 25,848 dated decisions across UK LPAs.
📊 Enfield
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.
🎯 Inverse view — "I want a decision in [month], when do I submit?"
Based on this LPA's typical decision-lag of 66 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 | 77.9% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Jan | 80.3% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Feb | 85.9% |
| May | Submit by end of Mar | 94.1% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Apr | 100% |
| Jul | Submit by end of May | 100% |
| Aug | Submit by end of Jun | — |
| Sep | Submit by end of Jul | 75% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Aug | 100% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Sep | 80% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Oct | 84.6% |
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 Enfield. 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: Conservation Area (33 days). Slowest: Full / Major (60 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 198 | 69.7% | 60 d (9 wk) | 31–290 d | Filter ▸ |
| Householder | 194 | 80.4% | 50 d (7 wk) | 26–197 d | Filter ▸ |
| Lawful Development | 191 | 85.9% | 41 d (6 wk) | 16–185 d | Filter ▸ |
| Prior Approval | 89 | 88.8% | 39 d (6 wk) | 28–78 d | Filter ▸ |
| Conservation Area | 62 | 88.7% | 33 d (5 wk) | 8–56 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement | 13 | 84.6% | 46 d (7 wk) | 35–56 d | Filter ▸ |
| Listed Building (low sample) | 5 | 60% | 48 d (7 wk) | 40–56 d | Filter ▸ |
| Reserved Matters (low sample) | 1 | 100% | 118 d (17 wk) | 118–118 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 | 254 |
80.3%
|
42d (~6wk) | → February | 7–75d |
| February | 220 |
85.9%
|
37d (~5wk) | → March | 12–57d |
| March | 17 |
94.1%
|
20d (~3wk) | → April | 7–30d |
| April | 4 |
100%
|
289d (~41wk) (outlier) | → February | 258–307d |
| July | 4 |
75%
|
215d (~31wk) (outlier) | → February | 185–237d |
| August | 7 |
100%
|
163d (~23wk) | → January | 138–217d |
| September | 5 |
80%
|
167d (~24wk) | → March | 133–197d |
| October | 13 |
84.6%
|
91d (~13wk) | → January | 59–165d |
| November | 176 |
75%
|
56d (~8wk) | → January | 34–135d |
| December | 271 |
77.9%
|
50d (~7wk) | → February | 20–118d |
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 | 265 | 79.2% | 51 |
| Tuesday | 192 | 80.7% | 49 |
| Wednesday | 180 | 82.8% | 61 |
| Thursday | 168 | 80.4% | 56 |
| Friday | 169 | 81.1% | 50 |
📊 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)
25,848 dated decisions where both received_date and decision_type are known. 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.