Appeals: how long they take
Latest average timescales for planning, enforcement and householder appeals.
Applies to England
Cases decided in DecemberMarch 20242025 – Summary
S78 & Householder appeals
| Median (weeks) | Mean (weeks) | Decisions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s78 planning appeals | Written Reps | |||
| s78 planning appeals | Hearings | |||
| s78 planning appeals | Inquiries | |||
| Householder appeals | Written Reps |
Enforcement appeals
Includes s174 enforcement appeals, s39 enforcement listed building appeals and lawful development certificate appeals
| Median (weeks) | Mean (weeks) | Decisions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written Reps | |||
| Hearings | |||
| Inquiries |
Mean Average - The total time taken divided by the number of cases. Also referred to as the ‘average’. A measure of how long each case would take, if the total time taken was spread evenly across all cases.
Median - The middle value, if the times are sorted. This means that half the cases take less then this time; and half the cases take more.
Decisions – number of decisions made.
Please note that the times given here are measured from the time an appeal which we are able to progress (‘valid’) to the time a decision is issued.
The smaller the number of decisions, the less helpful the mean and median are as measures for summarising performance. Particular care should be taken when there are fewer than twenty decisions. These are represented with an * in the table, but have been provided for completeness and transparency.
Each of the measures give a slightly different view of the average time taken to make a decision, both are provided because neither gives a perfect indication of the average. The mean is potentially affected by a small number of cases taking a long time – and this gives an over-estimate. The median is less affected by these few longer cases so may give a more helpful indication of the average.
The mean was published previously so we are publishing it to allow users to compare current with previous data.
In making use of the data provided, users are reminded that some decisions made in the latest month were on cases submitted a years or more before – as such, while they are the most recent snapshot available, they should not be relied on to give a reliable indication of what will happen to a case submitted recently or in the future.
We are reviewing our published information in order to make it more useful and accessible to users – please get in touch with us at statistics@planninginspectorate.gov.uk if you have suggestions on how we could improve the information we provide to you.
Updates to this page
Last updated
-
Cases decided in December 2024 data
Update history
2025-04-25 11:07
Cases decided in March 2025 data added
2025-01-23 09:45
Cases decided in December 2024 data
2024-10-24 09:45
Updated with September figures
2024-09-19 10:00
August 2024 figures added
2024-08-22 10:00
July 2024 data added
2024-07-18 10:00
June 2024 data added
2024-06-20 10:00
May 2024 data added
2024-05-23 10:00
Cases decided in April 2024 – Summary
2024-04-25 10:00
Updated with March 2024 data
2024-03-28 10:00
February 2024 data added
2024-02-22 10:00
January 2024 data added
2024-01-25 10:00
stats updated for December.
2023-12-21 10:00
November data added to tables
2023-11-23 10:00
Cases decided in October 2023
2023-10-19 09:30
Cases decided in September 2023 – Summary updated
2023-08-24 10:00
July 2023 data added
2023-07-20 10:00
Tables updated with June 2023 data
2023-06-22 10:00
May 2023 data added
2023-05-18 10:00
March 2023 data added
2023-04-27 10:30
Tables updated with March data
2023-03-23 10:30
Data updated with cases decided in February 2023
2023-02-23 10:30
Cases decided in January 2023 updated
2023-01-19 09:30
The table has been updated today on the number and length of decisions made in December 2022
2022-11-24 10:00
October 2022 – Decisions summary updated
2022-10-20 10:30
September 2022 – Decisions summary data added
2022-09-22 09:30
Updated number and length of decisions made in August 2022
2022-08-19 14:04
Inquiry appeals submitted after 1 April 2019 removed as no longer correct
2022-08-18 10:00
Data updated with July 2022 – Decisions summary
2022-07-21 09:30
June 2022 information on number and length of decisions made
2022-06-23 10:30
May 2022 data added
2022-05-19 09:30
Decisions summary updated with April 2022 data
2022-04-21 10:30
Decisions summary updated with March 2022 data
2022-03-17 09:30
Updated with number and length of decisions made in February 2022
2022-02-17 10:00
January 2022 data on timeliness