🗓 Submission Timing Intelligence
When is the best month — and weekday — to submit your planning application? Real approval-rate + decision-speed data from 144,156 dated decisions across UK LPAs.
📊 Fenland
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 160 days (~5 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 Aug | 80% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Sep | 93.8% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Oct | 82.4% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Nov | 87.5% |
| May | Submit by end of Dec | 75% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Jan | 100% |
| Jul | Submit by end of Feb | 100% |
| Aug | Submit by end of Mar | 70% |
| Sep | Submit by end of Apr | 83.3% |
| Oct | Submit by end of May | 85% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Jun | 88.9% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Jul | 54.5% |
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 Fenland. 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: Amendment / NMA (43 days). Slowest: Full / Major (118 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 186 | 84.9% | 118 d (17 wk) | 41–358 d | ✕ clear |
| Discharge Conditions | 112 | 98.2% | 88 d (13 wk) | 19–350 d | Filter ▸ |
| Tree Works / TPO | 56 | 82.1% | 66 d (9 wk) | 28–252 d | Filter ▸ |
| Amendment / NMA | 36 | 88.9% | 43 d (6 wk) | 11–145 d | Filter ▸ |
| Heritage / LB | 13 | 92.3% | 92 d (13 wk) | 56–171 d | Filter ▸ |
| Conservation Area (low sample) | 4 | 100% | 41 d (6 wk) | 38–42 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement (low sample) | 4 | 100% | 75 d (11 wk) | 63–88 d | Filter ▸ |
| Listed Building (low sample) | 3 | 66.7% | 72 d (10 wk) | 60–93 d | Filter ▸ |
| Reserved Matters (low sample) | 2 | 100% | 62 d (9 wk) | 56–68 d | Filter ▸ |
ⓘ Month-by-month stats above are filtered to Full / Major 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 | 16 |
100%
|
148d (~21wk) | → June | 72–339d |
| February | 11 |
100%
|
127d (~18wk) | → June | 61–282d |
| March | 10 |
70%
|
165d (~24wk) | → September | 112–271d |
| April | 12 |
83.3%
|
118d (~17wk) | → August | 75–263d |
| May | 40 |
85%
|
92d (~13wk) | → August | 54–350d |
| June | 27 |
88.9%
|
106d (~15wk) | → October | 44–325d |
| July | 11 |
54.5%
|
106d (~15wk) | → November | 41–309d |
| August | 10 |
80%
|
118d (~17wk) | → December | 60–258d |
| September | 16 |
93.8%
|
120d (~17wk) | → January | 70–343d |
| October | 17 |
82.4%
|
83d (~12wk) | → January | 42–308d |
| November | 8 |
87.5%
|
175d (~25wk) | → May | 44–307d |
| December | 8 |
75%
|
183d (~26wk) | → June | 120–358d |
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 | 48 | 89.6% | 141 |
| Tuesday | 33 | 87.9% | 193 |
| Wednesday | 43 | 83.7% | 122 |
| Thursday | 36 | 80.6% | 126 |
| Friday | 38 | 81.6% | 150 |
📊 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)
144,156 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.