About our planning data
Use past decisions to understand similar projects. An approval rate is a description of those records, not a prediction for your property.
Methodology reviewed 5 September 2026. This is an editorial review date, not the collection date of every record.
Two different collections
| Collection | What we use it for |
|---|---|
| 20.6 million applications | The wider UK catalogue accessible through PlanIT. It is separate from the records used to calculate our published rates. |
| 2,343,419 classified decision records | Our analysis archive across 181 councils in England. Individual council and project tables use subsets of this archive. |
Planning records originate from council registers. Where an example includes a source link, use it to read the original application and decision notice. Visit PlanIT or find your council’s planning services.
How we calculate an approval rate
Approved records ÷ (approved records + refused records) × 100.
Withdrawn and undecided applications are excluded. We show the decision count beside each percentage and withhold the percentage when the relevant sample has fewer than 8 records. Eight records is a display threshold, not a guarantee of a reliable prediction.
Compare the same project type and period. A council-wide average mixes different properties and projects, so it cannot establish that the same design would be more likely to succeed across a council boundary.
Dates and gaps in coverage
The recent column states its starting year, currently 2022. Records without a year are excluded from that dated subset but can remain in the all-years figures.
That means a council can have thousands of archived decisions and no usable recent sample. “Recent coverage unavailable” does not mean the council has made no decisions.
History and source-link coverage vary by council. A page rebuild recalculates the files available to us; it does not establish that the source register has just been collected. We do not claim complete coverage of every council or every application.
Project types, duplicates and application routes
Project categories are inferred from descriptions. A proposal can include several kinds of work, and a short description can miss an important detail.
The archive does not consistently separate planning permission, lawful development certificates and prior approval. These routes answer different questions. A project category should not be treated as a clean sample of full planning applications.
Our archive audit found repeated application references. Published counts are decision records, not verified totals of unique applications. Duplicate reconciliation and better route and date coverage remain work to complete; we have not presented them as finished.
How to read the examples
Example tables deliberately include refused decisions where available. They are selected illustrations, not a representative sample or a complete list of the latest applications.
Open the council record and compare the drawings, site constraints, application route and decision reasons. A neighbouring approval does not establish what is acceptable at your address.
Mapped constraints are another part of the check. National planning datasets have uneven coverage, and an empty result does not prove that a property has no restrictions. Read the planning data platform’s documentation.
Tell us about an error
Email [email protected] with the page link, council name, application reference and original source. We can investigate the record and the explanation shown on the page.
For your own project, start with the property, proposed work and current policies. The free address check is guidance from the public record, not a council decision.