Barber planning trends
Barbers' share of planning applications is 43% above three years earlier: the barber planning index stands at 195, nearly twice its 2016 share.
Barber applications since 2016
Barber applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA level count, a rising share
Councils received 73 barber applications in the 12 months to September 2026, close to the 74 in 2024. As total applications fell, barbers' share is 43% higher than three years earlier. The barber planning index peaked at 212 in the 12 months to July 2026.
Closures and removals
In the same 12 months a further 43 applications would close a barber's or turn one to another use. They are left out of these figures, which follow barbers that open or change.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 14 barber applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Barber applications each quarter
14 in Q3 2026, against 20 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 1.4 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 1.8 a year earlier.
Where barber applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Liverpool
North West · 7.1 in every 10,000 21 -
Birmingham
West Midlands · 2.2 in every 10,000 15 -
Durham
North East · 5.2 in every 10,000 15 -
Manchester
North West · 3.9 in every 10,000 11 -
Peterborough
East of England · 9.0 in every 10,000 11 -
Rhondda Cynon Taf
Wales · 6.8 in every 10,000 11 -
Sandwell
West Midlands · 7.1 in every 10,000 11 -
East Suffolk
East of England · 3.4 in every 10,000 10 -
Newport
Wales · 12 in every 10,000 10 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 2.2 in every 10,000 9
Latest barber applications
- Unit 12 Westbourne Centre 56 Kelburn Street Barrhead East Renfrewshire Change of use from office (class 4) to barbers (class 1A)
- Lloyds Tsb 39 - 41 Cowbridge Road Pontyclun Rhondda Cynon Taf Proposed change of use of the existing bank (Use Class A2) to accommodate a ceramic workshop (Use Class B1c), barbers (Use Class A1), tattoo parlour (Sui Generis) and offices (Use Class B1a), with shared ancillary kitchen and WC facilities, together with alterations to the shopfront.
- Ground Floor, 1 Cheltenham Road, Blackburn, Blackburn With Darwen Proposed change of use to a mixed-use building (Sui Generis) comprising a beauty salon and barbershop and four residential bedsits with external alterations, installation of a new shopfront and roller shutter
- 20 Grove Park Walsham Le Willows Bury St Edmunds Suffolk Full Planning Application - Change of use of part of dwellinghouse to a barber studio
- 2 Grist Square, Laugharne, Carmarthen Change of use from its current garage/storage use to a small barber shop, falling within Use Class A1 (Shops). The proposal is to convert the existing ground-floor garage into a small, traditional-style barber shop, providing a new local business for Laugharne and enhancing the appearance of the existing building
- 180 Bulford Road, Durrington, Salisbury Change of use Sui Generis (Tattoo Parlour) to Class E (Barbershop - 3 chairs, 2 staff).
Questions
How many barber planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 768 since January 2016, 73 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to July 2026.
Which councils receive the most barber applications?
Liverpool, Birmingham and Durham have received the most since 2016.
Are barber planning applications rising?
The share is rising. Councils received 73 in the 12 months to September 2026, close to the 74 in 2024, but a share of all applications 43% higher than three years earlier. The barber planning index peaked at 212 in the year to July 2026.
Why have barbershops grown faster than barber applications?
The National Hair & Beauty Federation, using Local Data Company figures, reported in October 2024 that barbershops grew by 5,791 outlets over five years. In England, a move between uses within Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses) 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
What needs an application
Since September 2020, a barber moving into a shop, café or office unit in England needs no planning application, because all three sit in Class E.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names barbers 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.
- Removals are taken out: every matching application is classified, and those that would remove or demolish barbers, or change them to another use, are not counted. The figures follow applications that add, extend or alter them.
- How matches are checked: we read a random sample of the barber applications counted here against what the topic's name means, and compare the counts with published figures where they exist.
- 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 barber 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 11 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
- The National Hair & Beauty Federation, using Local Data Company figures, reported in October 2024 five-year growth of 5,791 barbershop outlets. modernbarber.co.uk
- SI 2020/757 created Class E in England from 1 September 2020, replacing classes A1 to A3 and B1, and parts of D1 and D2. legislation.gov.uk
- Class A1, which included hairdressers, was subsumed into Class E, and movement within Class E needs no permission. planninggeek.co.uk