Planning permission in Islington
What actually happens to planning applications decided by London Borough of Islington: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 4,858 applications decided in the two years to August 2026, from the council's public planning register.
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How long does planning permission take in Islington?
Half of decided applications took 54 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 42 and 91 days, and 55.3% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Major applications run to a 13-week target, or 16 weeks where an environmental impact assessment is required, and contested schemes take longer still.
The Islington local plan
Decisions are made against the London Plan (2021) and the Islington Local Plan (adopted 2023) in three parts: strategic and development management policies, site allocations, and the Bunhill and Clerkenwell area action plan.
The 2023 plan is recent, so only focused documents are emerging (including a Gypsy and Traveller local plan at Regulation 18).
What tends to shape decisions here: A dense heritage borough with many conservation areas, Central Activities Zone designations and long-running pressure around basement development. The council's housing trajectory has not been updated since 2021, and the Housing Delivery Test result of 69 per cent both adds a 20 per cent buffer and, under the August 2026 NPPF, deems an evidenced unmet need to exist in its own right for sites outside settlements - though the borough is almost wholly built up, so the S4 presumption applies on most sites regardless.
If Islington says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 26.6% of appealed Islington refusals (106 of 398 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Islington ranks nationally: planning appeals in Islington.
Source: decisions published on the London Borough of Islington public planning register, two years to August 2026. Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded. We track 18,736 Islington applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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