Bedsit planning trends
The bedsit planning index stands at 34, about a third of its 2016 share, on 88 applications in the 12 months to September 2026.
Bedsit applications since 2016
Bedsit applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA third of the 2016 level
Councils received 380 bedsit applications in 2016 and 123 in 2025. Their share of all applications fell from 6.0 to 2.7 in every 10,000 over the same years. The 12-month share was highest in the year to December 2016.
The West Midlands leads
From 2023 to 2025 the West Midlands received 5.9 bedsit applications in every 10,000, twice the UK's 2.9. Wales came next at 4.5 and Scotland was lowest at 1.5. Birmingham has the most since 2016, with 59.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 18 bedsit applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Bedsit applications each quarter
18 in Q3 2026, against 34 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 1.8 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 3.1 a year earlier.
Where bedsit applications concentrate
By region
Bedsit applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 9.2 in every 10,000 59 -
Coventry
West Midlands · 20 in every 10,000 45 -
Camden
London · 12 in every 10,000 36 -
Sandwell
West Midlands · 20 in every 10,000 29 -
Walsall
West Midlands · 20 in every 10,000 29 -
Cornwall
South West · 3.6 in every 10,000 28 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 6.7 in every 10,000 27 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 4.0 in every 10,000 27 -
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
South West · 6.4 in every 10,000 23 -
Bristol
South West · 6.1 in every 10,000 23
Latest bedsit applications
- Brecon Medical Group Practice Ty Henry Vaughan Bridge Street Llan-faes Brecon Powys Conversion of the existing first floor of the Tannery Building from use class D1 to C2 as a residential institution for the medical training of students at the practice only, comprising 4 no. student bedsits and associated communal area.
- 41 Cobham Street Gravesend Kent Conversion of 3 bed single dwellinghouse to 3 flats, comprising of 1 no. one bed maisonette and 2 no. bedsits together with the installation of a new entrance door at basement level and new concrete stairs with balustrade from ground to basement level on front elevation.
- 35 High Road Southampton Retrospective application for conversion of 2 flats to form 4 flats (2 x 1 bed 2 x bedsits)
- Harmora 16 Banff Road Keith Moray Conversion of 5 no former bedsit flats to form single private dwellinghouse at
- 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
- Island Cottage Church Road North Mundham Chichester West Sussex Change of use from a dwellinghouse (Use Class C3) to a house in multiple occupation comprising four bedsits for a maximum of six occupants (Use Class C4), together with the retention and completion of a single-storey side extension replacing the former conservatory, and associated parking, cycle and refuse storage.
Questions
How many bedsit planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 2,205 since January 2016, 88 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2016.
Which councils receive the most bedsit applications?
Birmingham, Coventry and Camden have received the most since 2016.
Are bedsit applications rising or falling?
Falling. Bedsits' share of applications was 32% lower in the 12 months to September 2026 than three years earlier, and the bedsit planning index stands at 34, about a third of its 2016 share.
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 that mention bedsits. In England a change from a house to a small house in multiple occupation has needed no application since 2010, unless a council withdraws that right.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names bedsits 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 bedsit 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 bedsit 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
- Since 1 October 2010 changes between class C3 dwellinghouses and class C4 small houses in multiple occupation have been permitted development in England, in both directions. legislation.gov.uk
- Classes C3 and C4 are separate use classes, and an Article 4 direction (a council order that removes a permitted development right in an area) can restrict changes between different use classes. gov.uk