Allotment planning trends
The allotment planning index is 99, almost exactly its 2016 share, after a 2023 peak: 106 applications in the year to September 2026.
Allotment applications since 2016
Allotment applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredBack to the 2016 share
Allotments' share peaked in 2023 at 3.0 in every 10,000 applications, on 149 applications, the highest share of any year since 2016. It fell to 1.8 in 2024 and stood at 2.4 in the 12 months to September 2026.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 22 allotment applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Allotment applications each quarter
22 in Q3 2026, against 21 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 2.1 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 1.9 a year earlier.
Where allotment applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Central Bedfordshire
East of England · 11 in every 10,000 31 -
Dorset
South West · 4.7 in every 10,000 23 -
Wiltshire
South West · 4.1 in every 10,000 23 -
Cornwall
South West · 2.7 in every 10,000 21 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 3.1 in every 10,000 21 -
Somerset
South West · 3.0 in every 10,000 17 -
East Devon
South West · 7.6 in every 10,000 16 -
Cherwell
South East · 7.5 in every 10,000 15 -
Northumberland
North East · 5.5 in every 10,000 15 -
Wealden
South East · 6.1 in every 10,000 15
Latest allotment applications
- Grosvenor Barracks, Coleshill Road, Enniskillen Renewal of outline planning permission LA10/2023/2177/O for a shared, mixed use and mixed tenure housing regeneration scheme. Site to be developed for residential use, with associated open space and amenities (Play areas and Allotments).
- Land Off Niort Way Northants Llp Niort Way Wellingborough Provision of 0.18 hectares of Allotments, boundary fencing and associated infrastructure as required by section 106 legal agreement associated with variation to planning permission reference WP/16/00271/VAR.
- Land Opposite Teats Hill Flats Teats Hill Road Plymouth Erection of 3 new dwellings with associated new vehicular access, landscaping and parking plus change of use and provision of allotments
- Land 195M NW Of 94 Hawthorn Drive Inverness Change of use from open space to allotments
- Former Animal Health Trust Lanwades Park Kentford Newmarket Suffolk Hybrid application - A. Planning application - a. private and affordable dwellings following demolition of specified existing buildings b. new commercial building (class E) on ground floor and flats above c. change of use of listed stable block to community use (class F2)/commercial use (class E) d. provision of open space including dedicated area of SANG, e. play space, f. new footpath link to Jeddah Way, g. landscaping, h. car parking and i. associated infrastructure with j. vehicular access from Sir Graham Kirkham Avenue, and Sire Lane B. Outline application (all matters reserved except access) - a. private and affordable dwellings, b. one form entry primary school with 60 space nursery, c. single 30 place nursery, d. allotments, e. provision of open space and SANG, f. play space, g. landscaping, h. car parking and i. associated infrastructure with j. vehicular access from the B1506 and School Road
- Land to the East of (A38) Bristol Road, and North of, Downend Road, Puriton, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 Outline planning application with all matters reserved apart from access (means of access), for the development of up to 410 dwellings (Class C3) and a commercial building (Class E), with landscaping, public open space (including formal play space and opportunities for a community orchard and allotments), drainage, highway and access improvements, and all associated infrastructure.
Questions
How many allotment planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 1,273 since January 2016, 106 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to January 2024.
Which councils receive the most allotment applications?
Central Bedfordshire, Dorset and Wiltshire have received the most since 2016.
Are allotment applications rising or falling?
Down on the 2023 peak, though up since 2024. Yearly counts fell from 149 in 2023 to 82 in 2024, then rose to 100 in 2025. The share over the 12 months to September 2026 is 12% below three years earlier.
How long are council allotment waiting lists?
Greenpeace UK's 2023 freedom of information survey of UK councils counted 178,552 people on allotment waiting lists by 30 September that year. 157,820 of them were in England, against 86,787 in England in 2011.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
These figures count any application that mentions allotments: new plots, plots set out within larger housing schemes, and building on or beside existing sites.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names allotments or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- How matches are checked: we read the 200 most recent allotment applications and 20 from every year since 2016 to confirm each one belongs.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. The allotment planning index sets the 2016 share at 100, so 200 means twice as common as in 2016.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- Greenpeace UK's 2023 freedom of information survey counted 178,552 people on allotment waiting lists by 30 September 2023, 157,820 in England against 86,787 in 2011. greenpeace.org.uk