🗓 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.
📊 Islington
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 79 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 | 80% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Nov | 88.9% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Dec | 67.3% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Jan | 74% |
| May | Submit by end of Feb | 96.7% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Mar | 100% |
| Jul | Submit by end of Apr | 100% |
| Aug | Submit by end of May | 100% |
| Sep | Submit by end of Jun | 100% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Jul | 70% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Aug | 87.5% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Sep | 100% |
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 Islington. 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 (17 days). Slowest: Listed Building (95 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 217 | 68.7% | 74 d (11 wk) | 38–345 d | Filter ▸ |
| Conservation Area | 120 | 95% | 17 d (2 wk) | 0–159 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement | 95 | 46.3% | 63 d (9 wk) | 38–328 d | Filter ▸ |
| Householder | 91 | 89% | 85 d (12 wk) | 43–291 d | Filter ▸ |
| Listed Building | 91 | 90.1% | 95 d (14 wk) | 35–345 d | Filter ▸ |
| Prior Approval | 10 | 60% | 58 d (8 wk) | 51–76 d | Filter ▸ |
| Change of Use (low sample) | 7 | 42.9% | 58 d (8 wk) | 51–76 d | Filter ▸ |
| Lawful Development (low sample) | 3 | 0% | 65 d (9 wk) | 48–76 d | Filter ▸ |
| Outline (low sample) | 1 | 0% | 64 d (9 wk) | 64–64 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 | 123 |
74%
|
41d (~6wk) | → February | — |
| February | 91 |
96.7%
|
32d (~5wk) | → March | — |
| March | 30 |
100%
|
25d (~4wk) | → April | — |
| April | 4 |
100%
|
285d (~41wk) (outlier) | → February | 268–291d |
| June | 7 |
100%
|
221d (~32wk) (outlier) | → January | 205–240d |
| July | 10 |
70%
|
187d (~27wk) | → January | 164–221d |
| August | 8 |
87.5%
|
181d (~26wk) | → February | 153–218d |
| September | 27 |
100%
|
150d (~21wk) | → February | 113–198d |
| October | 50 |
80%
|
106d (~15wk) | → February | 70–162d |
| November | 99 |
88.9%
|
72d (~10wk) | → January | 40–141d |
| December | 150 |
67.3%
|
59d (~8wk) | → February | 17–120d |
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 | 158 | 75.3% | 68 |
| Tuesday | 124 | 88.7% | 68 |
| Wednesday | 125 | 81.6% | 72 |
| Thursday | 97 | 81.4% | 74 |
| Friday | 100 | 84% | 84 |
📊 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.