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Planning approval rates by council

Explore historical planning decisions by project type across 181 councils in England.

Checked against 20.6 million UK planning applications on file across 420 planning authorities. Approval rates from 2,343,419 decisions we classified across 181 councils in England.

Choose your council to compare like-for-like projects, see the sample size and explore example decisions.

England, by project type

Decision records across 181 councils, all years in the archive
Project typeApproval rateDecidedRecent rate (since 2022)
Single-storey rear extension86%330,62684% (98,277)
Two-storey rear extension82%134,00378% (35,840)
Wraparound extension90%50,43688% (17,205)
Side extension87%140,02385% (36,070)
Loft conversion and dormer81%71,66479% (21,332)
Rooflight88%85,17387% (36,565)
Outbuilding and garden room83%50,52182% (18,773)
Porch91%41,56788% (9,624)
Garage conversion91%25,01691% (8,219)
Basement89%46,68886% (13,941)
Window and door91%107,28490% (40,001)

How to read these rates

These are historical outcomes for the applications in our archive, not the chance of approval for your property. Compare the same project type and read the decided count alongside each percentage.

About the planning data

Rate = approved divided by approved plus refused, using the decisions in our classified archive. Rates are withheld as unknown where fewer than 8 records of that project type were decided. Withdrawn applications are excluded.

Recent means records dated 2022 or later. Records without a year are excluded from the recent rate but remain in the all-years figure. Historical coverage varies by council, and duplicate application references may remain in the archive.

Approval rates from 2,343,419 decisions we classified across 181 councils in England. The wider 20.6 million application catalogue is accessible through PlanIT; it is not the dataset used to calculate these percentages.

Read the full methodology and coverage notes.

Project types and outcomes are classified from council records. Check the original application and decision notice before relying on an individual example. A page rebuild does not mean every council record has just been refreshed.

Councils

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London

Rest of England

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About the planning data

Checked against 20.6 million UK planning applications on file across 420 planning authorities. Approval rates from 2,343,419 decisions we classified across 181 councils in England.

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