Appeals: how long they take - GOV.UK Cookies on GOV.UK We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. You have accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. You have rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. View cookies Guidance Appeals: how long they take Latest average timescales for planning, enforcement and householder appeals. From: Planning Inspectorate Published 1 January 2014 23 April 2026 See all updates Applies to England Cases decided in March 2026 – Summary S78 & Householder appeals Median (weeks) Mean (weeks) Decisions s78 planning appeals Written Reps 16 21 751 s78 planning appeals Hearings 24 26 38 s78 planning appeals Inquiries 28* 32* 13* Householder appeals Written Reps 13 14 408 Enforcement appeals Includes s174 enforcement appeals, s39 enforcement listed building appeals and lawful development certificate appeals Median (weeks) Mean (weeks) Decisions Written Reps 76 79 283 Hearings 25* 29* 11* Inquiries 33* 53* 6* 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 Published 1 January 2014 show all updates 23 April 2026 Cases decided in March 2026 data added 22 January 2026 Updated with December 2025 data 23 October 2025 Cases decided in September 2025 17 July 2025 Updated with June 2025 data 25 April 2025 Cases decided in March 2025 data added 23 January 2025 Cases decided in December 2024 data 24 October 2024 Updated with September figures 19 September 2024 August 2024 figures added 22 August 2024 July 2024 data added 18 July 2024 June 2024 data added 20 June 2024 May 2024 data added 23 May 2024 Cases decided in April 2024 – Summary 25 April 2024 Updated with March 2024 data 28 March 2024 February 2024 data added 22 February 2024 January 2024 data added 25 January 2024 stats updated for December. 21 December 2023 November data added to tables 23 November 2023 Cases decided in October 2023 19 October 2023 Cases decided in September 2023 – Summary updated 21 September 2023 Updated appeal handling time averages for August 2023 24 August 2023 July 2023 data added 20 July 2023 Tables updated with June 2023 data 22 June 2023 May 2023 data added 18 May 2023 March 2023 data added 27 April 2023 Tables updated with March data 23 March 2023 Data updated with cases decided in February 2023 23 February 2023 Cases decided in January 2023 updated 19 January 2023 The table has been updated today on the number and length of decisions made in December 2022 22 December 2022 November 2022 - Decisions summary updated 24 November 2022 October 2022 - Decisions summary updated 20 October 2022 September 2022 - Decisions summary data added 22 September 2022 Updated number and length of decisions made in August 2022 19 August 2022 Inquiry appeals submitted after 1 April 2019 removed as no longer correct 18 August 2022 Data updated with July 2022 - Decisions summary 21 July 2022 June 2022 information on number and length of decisions made 23 June 2022 May 2022 data added 19 May 2022 Decisions summary updated with April 2022 data 21 April 2022 Decisions summary updated with March 2022 data 17 March 2022 Updated with number and length of decisions made in February 2022 17 February 2022 January 2022 data on timeliness 20 January 2022 How long appeals take based on December 2021 data 16 December 2021 November 2021 figures added 25 November 2021 October decisions summary data added 21 October 2021 September 2021 data added 23 September 2021 August 2021 data added 19 August 2021 Tables updated with July data. 22 July 2021 Updated appeal timeliness data for June 2021 24 June 2021 May 2021 data on how long decisions are taking. 20 May 2021 April 2021 data added to show how long an appeal has taken. 22 April 2021 March data added to chart 18 March 2021 February 2021 - Decisions summary updated 18 February 2021 January 2021 - Decisions summary updated 21 January 2021 December 2020 - Decisions summary updated 29 October 2020 September 2020 data added. 24 September 2020 August average performance data added 28 August 2020 Corona virus information removed and July 2020 - Decisions summary added. 13 May 2020 Message regarding the impact of Covid-19 on our average timescales. 5 May 2020 The average timescales have been removed as we have postponed site visits, Hearings and Inquiries. 1 April 2020 To help delay the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) we are following Government advice on social distancing and avoiding non-essential travel. This has meant it necessary to postpone site visits, Hearings and Inquiries which has affected the time it is taking to deal with some appeals. We are looking ways to mitigate this by using technology and other ways to process appeals without risking the wellbeing of appellants, parties to an appeal and our staff. We apologise for the inconvenience this causes. 17 February 2020 Data updated with January 2020 figures 16 January 2020 Updated times added 11 November 2019 Average timescales updated 8 November 2019 Added a link to the Inspectorate's news item on Approach to casework during the pre-election period 15 October 2019 Average timescales updated 9 September 2019 Average timescales updated 12 August 2019 Average timescales updated 9 July 2019 Average timescales updated 13 June 2019 Average times updated 13 May 2019 Average times updated 16 April 2019 Updated the first section with a comment realating to the time taken to decide apeals 8 April 2019 Average timescales updated 14 March 2019 Latest appeal timescales 11 December 2018 Average timescales updated 15 October 2018 Data updated 9 October 2018 data on handling times updated 7 August 2018 average timescales updated 6 July 2018 times updated 12 June 2018 Average timescales updated 17 May 2018 Average timescales updated 19 March 2018 Average timescales updated 7 February 2018 Average timescales updated 9 January 2018 Average timescales updated 13 December 2017 Updated data on appeal handling times 18 October 2017 indicative times updated 2 October 2017 Indicative times updated 7 August 2017 Monthly figures updated 15 June 2017 pre election advice removed 6 June 2017 Monthly stats updated 4 May 2017 Monthly Figures updated 11 April 2017 Advice on impact of local elections added 7 April 2017 Monthly figures updated 23 March 2017 Timescales updated 16 January 2017 The monthly figures and the way they are set out have been updated 5 December 2016 Monthly figures updated 12 October 2016 Figures updated 19 July 2016 figures updated 11 May 2016 Monthly figures updated 10 February 2016 Updated figures 1 January 2014 First published. 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