🗓 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.
📊 Haringey
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 78 days (~3 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 Oct | 94.1% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Nov | 82.7% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Dec | 89% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Jan | 93.1% |
| May | Submit by end of Feb | 85.7% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Mar | 89.3% |
| Jul | Submit by end of Apr | 100% |
| Aug | Submit by end of May | 100% |
| Sep | Submit by end of Jun | 87.5% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Jul | 90% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Aug | 81.8% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Sep | 81.5% |
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 Haringey. 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: Lawful Development (45 days). Slowest: Listed Building (133 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 187 | 87.2% | 84 d (12 wk) | 28–357 d | Filter ▸ |
| Householder | 148 | 86.5% | 76 d (11 wk) | 23–331 d | Filter ▸ |
| Lawful Development | 96 | 85.4% | 45 d (6 wk) | 1–193 d | Filter ▸ |
| Listed Building | 18 | 83.3% | 133 d (19 wk) | 37–320 d | Filter ▸ |
| Conservation Area | 17 | 76.5% | 78 d (11 wk) | 50–122 d | Filter ▸ |
| Prior Approval | 15 | 60% | 60 d (9 wk) | 21–315 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement | 13 | 92.3% | 114 d (16 wk) | 37–268 d | Filter ▸ |
| Change of Use (low sample) | 5 | 60% | 106 d (15 wk) | 49–315 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 | 131 |
93.1%
|
50d (~7wk) | → March | — |
| February | 63 |
85.7%
|
44d (~6wk) | → March | 1–357d |
| March | 28 |
89.3%
|
69d (~10wk) | → May | 1–331d |
| April | 3 |
100%
|
172d (~25wk) | → October | 1–268d |
| May | 8 |
100%
|
267d (~38wk) (outlier) | → February | 251–290d |
| June | 8 |
87.5%
|
241d (~34wk) (outlier) | → February | 219–278d |
| July | 10 |
90%
|
196d (~28wk) | → February | 160–251d |
| August | 11 |
81.8%
|
156d (~22wk) | → January | 126–217d |
| September | 27 |
81.5%
|
152d (~22wk) | → February | 106–213d |
| October | 34 |
94.1%
|
105d (~15wk) | → February | 69–162d |
| November | 110 |
82.7%
|
72d (~10wk) | → January | 32–139d |
| December | 146 |
89%
|
56d (~8wk) | → February | 12–113d |
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 | 153 | 86.3% | 74 |
| Tuesday | 133 | 82% | 98 |
| Wednesday | 120 | 90% | 82 |
| Thursday | 78 | 93.6% | 115 |
| Friday | 111 | 92.8% | 80 |
📊 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.