Planning permission delays: simple applications skip the committee queue from 31 October

From 31 October, a straightforward planning application, like your customer’s rear extension or loft conversion, can be decided by a planning officer without waiting for a committee to meet. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced the change in a release dated 30 October 2026, saying these applications will be decided by expert planning officers “rather than waiting for a planning committee slot”.

If planning permission delays are holding up your next extension job, that wait could get shorter. It’s still not a start date you can give a customer: the decision can come sooner and still be a no. And when you’re running the business around other people’s projects, planning is only one gate. The building control inspection stages still sit in your programme after it.

The new National Scheme of Delegation is meant to free councillors to focus on the most significant developments. Home extensions and loft conversions are the examples MHCLG gives, along with small businesses improving their premises, so the change could reach your own unit or shop too. The full list of what counts as straightforward isn’t in the announcement.

MHCLG also says 420 planners have been recruited through government-backed programmes, beating the 300 promised in the 2024 manifesto. More officers and fewer trips to committee are both aimed at the same queue.

Planning permission checks get an AI helper, but officers still decide

MHCLG has widened testing of PlanAssist, AI software for council planning officers. Unlike the AI for tradesmen tools you might use for quotes and calls, this one sits on the council’s side of the desk.

PlanAssist brings applications, local planning policies and site constraints together in one place, so officers can find the key information more quickly. Officers remain responsible for reviewing applications and making decisions.

In early trials at Camden, Barnet and Dorset councils, MHCLG says, the tool cut time spent on key planning tasks by 58%. That’s time on tasks, as the government reports it, and it isn’t the same as 58% off your customer’s wait.

MHCLG links the tool to routine householder applications coming back in four weeks instead of eight. That’s the department’s own comparison, and it isn’t a new legal deadline.

Testing has now expanded to a further 12 councils, bringing the total to 15, for 12 months. Officers will use PlanAssist alongside their normal process so its performance can be tested at scale. The government intends to make it available to every council in England by the end of 2027. Councils won’t have to use it.

Already submitted? Ask the council before you move the job

If your customer’s application is already in, ask the council whether it moves to the new route before you shuffle the diary. MHCLG hasn’t said what happens to applications already waiting. Until that’s clear, treat an earlier decision as a bonus, not a date to build the crew around.