What councils approve
UK councils refused 10.7% of the planning applications they decided in Q3 2026. That share has stayed between 10.5% and 12.5% every quarter since 2017; which proposals are refused has changed more.
Share of applications decided that were refused, each quarter since 2017
Applications decided, by the quarter each decision was issued; condition discharges and amendments left out.
How this is measuredQ3 2026 against a year earlier
The same 173 councils decided 61,135 applications in Q3 2026, against 64,499 a year earlier, and refused 10.2% of them, against 10.0%.
Decisions each quarter
Approvals and refusals at the same 173 councils. Compare Q3 2026 with Q3 2025.
Share refused
Refusals out of those decisions, each quarter.
Refusal rates by topic, past 12 months against the 12 before
Decisions issued in the 12 months to September 2026, against the previous 12 months. For all applications, condition discharges and amendments left out, the refusal rate went from 10.9% to 10.7%.
Of the topics with 500 or more decisions in each year (the table below also lists smaller ones), the refusal rate for HMOs (houses in multiple occupation, shared by unrelated tenants) rose most, from 32.2% to 40.5%. Phone masts fell furthest, from 19.8% to 15.2%.
| Topic | 12 months to Sep 2025 | 12 months to Sep 2026 | Change | Decisions, 12 months to Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMOs | 32.2% | 40.5% | up 8.3 points | 4,736 |
| Gypsy and Traveller pitches | 39.6% | 47.1% | up 7.5 points | 314 |
| Holiday lets | 24.1% | 27.4% | up 3.3 points | 2,304 |
| Care homes | 23.2% | 26.4% | up 3.2 points | 1,916 |
| Padel courts | 12.5% | 15.6% | up 3.1 points | 647 |
| Phone boxes | 39.5% | 42.5% | up 3.0 points | 583 |
| Glamping | 20.8% | 23.6% | up 2.8 points | 377 |
| Wind turbines | 8.4% | 9.8% | up 1.4 points | 204 |
| Dog exercise fields | 18.6% | 19.6% | up 1.0 points | 280 |
| Retrospective applications | 19.5% | 20.2% | up 0.7 points | 16,077 |
| Solar farms | 11.0% | 11.5% | up 0.5 points | 130 |
| Substations | 5.8% | 5.3% | down 0.5 points | 892 |
| Campsites | 17.2% | 16.5% | down 0.7 points | 358 |
| Loft conversions | 16.0% | 15.2% | down 0.8 points | 8,540 |
| Annexes | 14.4% | 13.6% | down 0.8 points | 4,835 |
| Battery storage | 12.0% | 11.0% | down 1.0 points | 646 |
| Air conditioning | 8.6% | 7.3% | down 1.3 points | 1,796 |
| Heat pumps | 8.8% | 7.3% | down 1.5 points | 3,321 |
| EV charging | 10.3% | 8.1% | down 2.2 points | 2,084 |
| Phone masts | 19.8% | 15.2% | down 4.6 points | 1,215 |
What happened to applications received 2016 to 2024
Of 6.5 million decided, condition discharges and amendments included, 89.5% were approved. The refusal rate stayed between 10.3% and 11.3% for every year's applications.
Share refused, by year received
All decisions, at 372 councils.
What gets refused
Of applications received 2016 to 2024, phone boxes were refused most often, 50.3%, peaking at 68% for 2017 applications. Gypsy and Traveller pitches were refused 49.8% of the time (2,140 decided), 4.4 times the rate for all applications. Data centres were rarely refused: 3.1% of 291.
Share refused, by topic
Applications received 2016 to 2024. Dashed line: all applications.
Refusal rates that changed
Phone mast refusals went from 10% in 2016 to 40% in 2022, during the 5G rollout, then 26% in 2024. Holiday let refusals rose from 12% to 21% even without Scotland and Wales, whose rules changed. Glamping rose from 15% to 22%.
Homes: bigger schemes were refused less
Of applications received 2016 to 2024, proposals for one new home were refused 29.0% of the time, 2.6 times the rate for all applications. Schemes of 300 or more homes were refused 12.6%. The rate falls with every size band.
Share refused, by homes proposed
Applications that state a number of homes, received 2016 to 2024.
Schemes of 10 or more homes
Share refused, by year received.
Residential care: the refusal rate has nearly doubled
Proposals that create or extend residential care were refused 12% of the time in 2016 and 23% in 2024. Children's homes, counted here, grew from 162 decided proposals in 2016 to 2018 to 1,232 in 2022 to 2024.
Share refused, by year received
All residential care: new care homes, conversions to care and extensions, children's homes and supported living included. In the Index, care homes and children's homes are separate topics.
Within each kind of care
Share refused, applications received 2016 to 2018 against 2022 to 2024.
| Proposal | 2016 to 2018 | 2022 to 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Care or nursing homes, unspecified | 14% | 22% |
| Explicitly for older people | 13% | 17% |
| Children's homes | 19% | 23% |
Commercial uses and infrastructure: phone masts and takeaways were refused most
Of applications received 2016 to 2024, takeaways were refused 23.4% of the time, twice the rate for all applications.
In energy and digital infrastructure, EV charging, substations and data centres were refused less often than applications overall, and phone masts, solar farms, wind turbines and battery storage more often.
Commercial uses and infrastructure
Share refused, applications received 2016 to 2024. Dashed line: all applications.
Where and what
London councils refused 16.5% of applications received 2016 to 2024, 2.7 times the rate in Northern Ireland (6.0%). By type, telecoms and outline applications were refused most, conditions and discharges least.
By region
All 372 councils, by region.
By type of application
All decisions, including condition discharges and amendments.
Withdrawals and decision times
6.3% of applications received in 2016 were withdrawn before a decision, and 5.2% in 2024. Decisions took 77 days on average for 2016 applications, 96 at the 2021 peak and 76 for 2024.
Withdrawn before a decision
Share of concluded applications, by year received.
Days from receipt to decision
Average, by year received.
Air conditioning: fewer applications, until 2026
2,572 applications mentioned air conditioning in 2016 and 2,198 in 2025. Those received 2016 to 2024 were refused 8.0% of the time, below the 11.3% for all applications.
From January to September 2026, air conditioning's share of all applications was 44% higher than in the same months of 2025.
Applications mentioning air conditioning
By year received. Most cooling equipment needs no planning application.
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
Notes on the charts
- Decisions each month against a year earlier: July down 4.4%, August down 6.8%, September down 4.6%.
- Refusals as a share of approvals and refusals. The table shows topics with 50 or more decisions in each year.
- Many recent phone box applications are advertising-funded replacements for old kiosks. Padel courts were refused 13.4% of the time (523 decided), against the 11.3% for all applications.
- The three charts share one scale.
- Permitted development rules for masts widened in 2022, so many upgrades need no application. Short-term let control areas in Scotland and new Welsh use classes made more lets need planning permission in parts of both nations from 2022.
- The largest projects, such as the biggest solar farms, are consented nationally, not by councils.
- These are calendar days from receipt to decision.
The numbers behind the topic chart
| Topic | Decided | Refused | Against all applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone boxes | 8,686 | 50.3% | 4.5 times |
| Gypsy and Traveller pitches | 2,140 | 49.8% | 4.4 times |
| Phone masts | 21,288 | 29.9% | 2.6 times |
| HMOs | 38,826 | 27.9% | 2.5 times |
| Holiday lets | 24,045 | 20.3% | 1.8 times |
| Solar farms | 628 | 19.7% | 1.7 times |
| Glamping | 5,553 | 19.7% | 1.7 times |
| Dog exercise fields | 1,191 | 19.2% | 1.7 times |
| Campsites | 2,660 | 18.5% | 1.6 times |
| Retrospective applications | 150,808 | 17.8% | 1.6 times |
| Wind turbines | 1,309 | 17.5% | 1.5 times |
| Care homes | 7,371 | 17.2% | 1.5 times |
| Annexes | 54,276 | 14.8% | 1.3 times |
| Loft conversions | 139,971 | 14.0% | 1.2 times |
| Padel courts | 523 | 13.4% | 1.2 times |
| Battery storage | 2,265 | 12.4% | 1.1 times |
| EV charging | 8,459 | 9.3% | 0.8 times |
| Air conditioning | 15,498 | 8.0% | 0.7 times |
| Heat pumps | 16,716 | 6.4% | 0.6 times |
| Substations | 6,947 | 6.0% | 0.5 times |
| Data centres | 291 | 3.1% | 0.3 times |
Applications received 2016 to 2024.
- A decision is an approval or a refusal. The refusal rate is refusals as a share of both. Withdrawn applications are counted separately.
- Each outcome is taken from the council's published decision and classed as approved or refused. Checked against the decision wording on 166,716 decisions, the two agree in 99.96% of cases.
- The quarterly chart counts decisions by the date they were issued, from Q1 2017.
- The comparison with a year earlier uses the same 173 councils in both quarters, counting decisions on applications received from six months before each quarter.
- A council is included when every month of both quarters has at least half its usual number of decisions. We leave out councils whose records were incomplete for the period.
- The 2016 to 2024 figures follow applications received in those years to their outcome. Applications received from 2025 are added once most are decided.
- Every council's decisions are tested before use: a year with almost no refusals beside normal years removes the council. 372 councils pass and are used throughout.
- Topic, housing, commercial and infrastructure figures leave out applications that only discharge conditions, vary or amend an earlier permission, approve reserved matters, or seek a certificate or screening opinion. "All applications" (the dashed lines) is on the same basis.
- A topic counts applications whose description names it. Each topic's matches were checked one by one, by reading its 200 most recent applications and 20 from every year since 2016.
- The care, phone mast and holiday let trends hold on councils with complete records in every year, and when withdrawals are counted as refusals. New and retrospective Traveller pitch proposals are refused at similar rates.
- Housing figures use applications that state how many homes they propose. The care series counts proposals that create or extend residential care.
- A refusal can be overturned on appeal, and an approval is permission, not a building.
Sources
- Official planning statistics for England have put the grant rate between 85% and 89% across these years, on their own definitions. gov.uk