Planning departments are not meeting deadlines

Only half of planning condition applications are determined within the statutory eight-week timeframe.

Furthermore, also according to research carried out by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Paragon Bank Development Finance, performance is deteriorating year on year, with significant disparities between local planning authorities (LPAs).

The findings raise concerns about the impact of delays on housing delivery, including the provision of affordable homes, at a time when the government is seeking to accelerate home building.

The research also highlights a lack of consistent monitoring of planning performance, making it difficult to identify bottlenecks, hold authorities to account and establish clear expectations for developers.

Planning conditions are requirements set by local authorities when granting planning permission.

Developers must meet these conditions at various stages of development and submit information for approval before work can continue – known as discharging conditions.

Pre-commencement conditions must be cleared ahead of construction starting on site, which means development can be delayed despite developers having already secured planning permission.

And this can have a significant impact on project delivery.

The statutory timeframe for determining applications to discharge conditions is 56 days, unless an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is required, in which case the period extends to 16 weeks.

In practice, the time taken to secure approval varies considerably between authorities, creating uncertainty over when developers can proceed with construction.

To understand the true scale of the problem, HBF carried out a Freedom of Information (FOI) exercise to establish how many applications to discharge planning conditions had been submitted and how many were determined within the statutory eight-week period over a three-year period.

The research identifies significant delays and substantial variation in the performance of local planning authorities:

*Only half of discharge condition applications (50.8 per cent) were determined within the statutory eight-week timeframe.

*Performance appears to be worsening year on year, with the percentage of applications being determined on time falling from 55.6 per cent in 2023/4 to 51.8 per cent in 2024/5

*The median determination time in 2025/26 was 70 days, 25 per cent longer than the statutory target.

*There was significant variation between local authorities, with some local authorities performing strongly against statutory targets (with more than 75 per cent of discharge applications determined on time), while others met the deadline in just 18 per cent of cases.

Although developers of all sizes are affected, the impact is often particularly acute for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) home builders with limited financial resources, fewer sites under construction at any one time and less flexibility to absorb unexpected delays.

Additional time spent waiting for approvals can tie up capital, increase financing and holding costs, disrupt construction schedules and undermine the viability of individual developments.

These pressures can also affect SME developers’ ability to bring forward new sites, invest in land or proceed with schemes that are already subject to tight financial margins.

Where delays accumulate, projects may be postponed or become more difficult to deliver, constraining the contribution smaller builders can make to overall housing supply.

Slower progress through the planning system can delay the delivery of affordable homes, as well as the wider infrastructure and community benefits associated with new development.

The findings come against a backdrop of persistent staffing shortages across local planning authorities.

Previous HBF research shows that 90 per cent of council planning departments are now operating below full capacity, with an estimated 2,660 additional planning officers needed across England and Wales.

This is a 20 per cent increase from previous research a year earlier.

Based on the findings, the HBF has urged the government to introduce a national framework for tracking and reporting the performance of LPAs in discharging conditions, and to monitor the impact of the introduction of the national default fee on LPA performance.

Local planning authorities must also be adequately staffed and resourced and introduce a set of standardised model conditions at pace.

Neil Jefferson, chief executive at HBF, said: “Securing planning permission should be a major step towards getting homes built, yet our research shows that almost half of applications to discharge planning conditions are not being determined within the statutory eight-week timeframe, with performance deteriorating year on year.

“These delays create unnecessary cost, uncertainty and risk for home builders, particularly smaller businesses without the reserves to absorb them.

“The government’s planning reforms have so far been positive, but will not alone unlock the delivery of homes at the pace and scale needed.

“Addressing the root cause of planning delays must also be part of the solution, including capacity, local planning staffing shortages, and ensuring greater transparency and accountability with consistent reporting so that performance can be properly monitored.”