Barn conversion planning trends
Councils received 2,319 barn conversion applications in the 12 months to September 2026, with the South West at more than twice the UK share.
Barn conversion applications since 2016
Barn conversion applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA steady share to 2025, lower since
The share was between 59 and 70 in every 10,000 applications each year from 2016 to 2025, while the count fell from 4,415 to 2,991. Over 12 months it is now 53, 20% below three years earlier. The barn conversion planning index stands at 76.
Highest in the South West and the East Midlands
From 2023 to 2025, the South West had 180 barn conversion applications in every 10,000 and the East Midlands 107, against 67 across the UK. London had 1.0, the lowest.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 550 barn conversion applications in Q3 2026: 53 in every 10,000 applications, against 60 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 10% lower than a year earlier.
Barn conversion applications each quarter
550 in Q3 2026, against 651 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 53 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 60 a year earlier.
Where barn conversion applications concentrate
By region
Barn conversion applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Somerset
South West · 308 in every 10,000 1,762 -
Cornwall
South West · 213 in every 10,000 1,646 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 188 in every 10,000 1,270 -
Wiltshire
South West · 149 in every 10,000 843 -
Dorset
South West · 167 in every 10,000 809 -
North Devon
South West · 541 in every 10,000 704 -
Babergh and Mid Suffolk (shared register)
East of England · 241 in every 10,000 671 -
Herefordshire
West Midlands · 284 in every 10,000 666 -
Mid Devon
South West · 582 in every 10,000 666 -
South Norfolk and Broadland (shared register)
East of England · 227 in every 10,000 637
Latest barn conversion applications
- Hartle Moor Farm, Unnamed Road Leading To Hartle Moor Farm, Bradwell Change of use of agricultural barn to dwellinghouse
- Burnside Kintore Aberdeenshire Change of Use of Agricultural Building to Flexible Commercial Use (Storage and Distribution Use Class 6)
- New Farm House Carters Clay Road Lockerley Romsey Hampshire Conversion of agricultural building to dwelling (Use Class C3)
- Melbury Farm Parkham Bideford Devon Prior notification for the change of use of agricultural building to 2 no. dwellinghouse and associated building operations under Class Q
- Pepperdon Barn, Moretonhampstead Change of use of redundant barn to a self catering holiday cottage
- NGR 310140 119248, Exeter Road, Sampford Arundel Application for Prior Approval for proposed change of use from agricultural building into 1 No. dwelling house (Class C3) and associated building operations at land at NGR 310140 119248, Exeter Road, Sampford Arundel
Questions
How many barn conversion planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 38,351 since January 2016, 2,319 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to May 2020.
Which councils receive the most barn conversion applications?
Somerset, Cornwall and North Yorkshire have received the most since 2016.
Do barn conversions need planning permission?
In England, Class Q lets a farm building become up to 10 homes, each up to 150 square metres, with prior approval; Class R covers commercial uses. Both were rewritten from 21 May 2024. Neither applies in Wales or Scotland.
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 applications to convert a farm building to another use, Class Q and Class R prior approvals included. One barn can need more than one application, so the count is of applications, not barns.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names barn conversions 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 barn conversion 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 barn conversion 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
- Class Q of Part 3 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows agricultural buildings to become up to 10 homes of up to 150 square metres each, by prior approval. legislation.gov.uk
- Class R allows agricultural buildings to change to a flexible commercial use. legislation.gov.uk
- S.I. 2024/579 substituted Classes Q and R from 21 May 2024. legislation.gov.uk