Corporate report

Environment Agency's planning consultation response timeliness: 2025 to 2026

Updated 13 October 2026

Applies to England

This report shows our performance as a consultee in the spatial planning system in England. We are required to report annually to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The report measures our performance against our statutory duty to respond within 21 days, or such other period as may be agreed in writing, to:

• planning application consultations from local planning authorities (LPAs)
• pre-application enquiries from developers

Responding to local authorities within 21 days is one of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra’s) measures of success for excellent delivery. It remains one of our corporate priorities.

The Environment Agency was established with a clear dual purpose to:

• protect the environment
• support sustainable development

These two goals are not in competition. Environmental recovery requires economic investment, and lasting economic growth can only be achieved through a healthy, resilient environment.

We do not need to choose between a healthy environment and a strong economy. One cannot exist without the other. As a growth and infrastructure delivery body, we deliver our own infrastructure and enable others to deliver theirs.

Responding in a timely way to pre-application enquiries and planning consultations is one of the ways in which we help to support sustainable growth. We also do this through:

• the quality and reliability of our responses
• having strategic discussions with local authorities and developers early in the development process
• identifying opportunities and providing solutions
• working in partnership with local authorities, strategic groups and developers to produce local plans

We aim to provide a good level of service to our customers by prioritising planning proposals that:

• may cause the greatest risk to the environment
• offer the greatest opportunities to enhance the environment

We offer a chargeable planning advice service for developers who want more detailed planning advice. This service has meant that we can work with developers at a much earlier stage to resolve any problems we identify in their proposals. We can then work together to resolve those problems and help shape a more acceptable proposal.

This has resulted in:

• planning authorities receiving better quality planning applications
• developers having greater certainty about our position on a proposal
• reducing the amount of time needed for discussions at the statutory stages – helping to speed up the consultation process for developers and ourselves
• saving developers time and money

1. Findings of this report

In 2025 to 2026 we responded to 97.5% of planning application consultations and pre-application enquiries within 21 days or such other period agreed in writing. This was up from 88.3% in 2024 to 2025.

We only seek extensions of time in exceptional circumstances where additional time is needed to provide a robust and proportionate assessment. This may include:

• complex proposals that require site visits
• meetings
• ongoing negotiations
• specialist technical input
• applications accompanied by an environmental impact assessment, which are often large, detailed and require consultation across multiple teams
• periods of short-term resource pressure, such as incident response activities or unexpected staff absences

In these cases, an extension helps ensure that all relevant issues are fully considered before we provide a response.

We responded to consultations and pre-application enquiries on 10,088 proposed developments. This is an increase of 453 (4.7%) from 9,635 in 2024 to 2025.

We made a total of 12,969 consultation responses during 2025 to 2026 because sometimes we are consulted more than once on a development proposal. However, we only report one pre-application or application consultation response per development.

We took an average of 16 days to respond to consultation requests. This is an improvement of 2 days compared to 2024 to 2025.

Of our consultation responses:

• 9,604 (95.2%) were on planning applications
• 484 (4.8%) were on pre-application enquiries

We responded to 9,084 (90.0%) of all planning application consultations and pre-application enquiries within 21 days.

We agreed with LPAs an extension beyond 21 days on 756 (7.5%) occasions. The average length of extensions was 7 days, 2 fewer than last year.

We also screened out around 10,450 consultations that we should not have received. This helped us focus our limited resources on responding more quickly to planning consultations and strategic plans for growth.

In 2025 to 2026 we agreed 614 charging arrangements with developers who wanted to use our chargeable planning advice service and recovered £526,000 of our costs. These applications are not included in the 21 day figures for this report as different response times are agreed as part of each charging agreement.

2. Excluded responses

Some consultations that we respond to are not included in these 21 day statistics because we are required to respond within different time limits.

We are a statutory consultee for environmental impact assessment developments. In 2025 to 2026 we responded to:

• 567 land-use planning applications (818 consultation responses)
• 359 scoping opinions

We also responded to 438 consultations about nationally significant infrastructure projects.

We are also a primary advisor to the Marine Management Organisation. They are responsible for most planning and development control at sea, including in estuarine and coastal waters. We responded to 313 marine licence consultations in 2025 to 2026.

3. Planned improvements

We are uniquely positioned to support the government’s growth mission while protecting and enhancing the environment. Through our planning advice, regulatory decisions and flood risk operations, we enable development that benefits both the economy and the environment.

We are improving our land use planning services and supporting the government’s approach to strategic spatial planning. We fully engaged with the government’s review of the statutory consultee system and have rapidly reformed our planning service to ensure we consistently provide advice within the 21 day deadline.

As part of that process, we committed to responding to 95% of relevant planning consultations within 21 days from September 2025 onwards. Through the hard work of operational teams and ongoing investment in our service, including IT systems, we are delighted to have met this commitment.

Dedicated Spending Review funding from government for planning, infrastructure and growth delivery will enable us to:

• shift from a reactive consultee to a proactive strategic partner – enabling understanding of and investment in environment capacity and infrastructure – blue, green, grey
• provide stronger end to end (planning and permitting) input aligned to developers’ project timelines
• actively use evidence to prevent ‘growth bottlenecks’ arising from water scarcity, poor water and land quality, flood risk, or nutrient neutrality issues before they stop development
• become more involved with strategic spatial planning, industrial clusters, freeports and significant housing development – including new towns
• work alongside developers, local authorities, and communities to shape sustainable growth in place – protecting what matters while enabling progress
• engage early to help projects succeed in a way that ensures there are the right environmental protections to build healthy places
• become more digitally enabled and align with others across the planning system
• improve our capacity to meet statutory deadlines – we have invested and launched a replacement for our legacy IT planning system to support improved performance

We’ve also launched a new planning advice form on GOV.UK. This makes it easier for customers to request Environment Agency planning advice and submit supporting information in one place.

We continue to support priority infrastructure development, through our National Infrastructure Team, which provides dedicated senior input to unlock some of the most challenging issues.

4. Application stage responses

Number of consultation requests: 9,604.

Number of substantive responses made within 21 days or otherwise agreed date: 9,365.

Percentage of substantive responses made within 21 days or otherwise agreed date: 97.5%.

4.1 Breakdown of the reasons for failure to meet 21 day or otherwise agreed timescale

Reason	Number	Percentage
Further information needs to be provided (from LPA and developer)	0	0%
Complex proposal (such as need for site visits and meetings, ongoing negotiations, specialist input)	32	13.4%
Environment Agency resourcing (such as workload issues, staff absences, availability of specialist expertise)	138	57.7%
Internal process error (such as incorrectly assigned deadlines, IT issues)	69	28.9%

Number of cases where extension to 21 day timescale is agreed: 726.

Percentage of cases where extension to 21 day timescale is agreed: 7.6%.

Average number of days of agreed extension to 21 day timescale: 7.

4.2 Breakdown of the reasons why extensions to the 21 day timescale have been agreed

Reason	Number	Percentage
Further information needs to be provided (from LPA and developer)	149	20.5%
Complex proposal (such as need for site visits and meetings, ongoing negotiations, specialist input)	188	25.9%
Environment Agency resourcing (such as workload issues, staff absences, availability of specialist expertise)	370	51.0%
Internal process error (such as incorrectly assigned deadlines, IT issues)	19	2.6%

Average number of days to provide a substantive response to all consultation requests: 16.

4.3 Number of pre-application stage responses

Number of consultation requests: 484.

Number of substantive responses made within 21 days or otherwise agreed date: 475.

Percentage of substantive responses made within 21 days or otherwise agreed date: 98.1%.

4.4 Breakdown of reasons for failure to meet 21 day or otherwise agreed timescale

Reason	Number	Percentage
Further information needs to be provided (from LPA and developer)	0	0%
Complex proposal (such as need for site visits and meetings, ongoing negotiations, specialist input)	1	11.1%
Environment Agency resourcing (such as workload issues, staff absences, availability of specialist expertise)	6	66.7%
Internal process error (such as incorrectly assigned deadlines, IT issues)	2	22.2%