Care home planning trends
Care homes for adults take 1.4 times their 2016 share of applications: the care home planning index stands at 142, with children's homes counted separately.
Care home applications since 2016
Care home applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredSteadier than the headlines suggest
Councils received 1,102 care home applications in 2016, 909 in 2022 and 1,147 in 2025. The growth in care applications since 2022 has come mostly from children's homes, which have their own topic.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 232 care home applications in Q3 2026: 23 in every 10,000 applications, against 23 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 1% lower than a year earlier.
Care home applications each quarter
232 in Q3 2026, against 249 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 23 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 23 a year earlier.
Where care home applications concentrate
By region
Care home applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 32 in every 10,000 204 -
Somerset
South West · 24 in every 10,000 138 -
Leicester
East Midlands · 67 in every 10,000 136 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 21 in every 10,000 126 -
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
South West · 34 in every 10,000 123 -
West Northamptonshire
East Midlands · 32 in every 10,000 112 -
Cornwall
South West · 14 in every 10,000 106 -
Croydon
London · 30 in every 10,000 106 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 25 in every 10,000 102 -
Wiltshire
South West · 18 in every 10,000 101
Latest care home applications
- 89 Old Mansfield Road Derby Change of use from a residential care home (Use Class C2) to a dwelling house (Use Class C3)
- Nightingale Care Home Church Lane Welborne Norfolk Provision of 6 Caravans located within the grounds of Nightingale Care Home to provide sleeping and welfare facilities for Staffuse
- Land South Of Willow Lane Beverley East Riding Of Yorkshire Erection of a residential care home (Use Class C2) with associated access, car and cycle parking, landscaping and infrastructure
- 1a Queens Avenue, Ballymoney Extensions to existing nursing home to provide improved facilities (no increase in patient numbers/ capacity) and associated site works
- 5, South Park Road, Ilford Change of use from a single dwelling house into a Care Home for up to four adults (18 years and over) with shift based carers. (Summary).
- Site Of Former Tipton Baths Queens Road Tipton Proposed 19 bedroom care home.
How often are they refused?
Of 7,371 received 2016 to 2024 and decided, 17.2% were refused, well above the 11.3% for all applications.
Refusal rate by year
Decisions, applications received 2016 to 2024
- Approved or refused7,371
- Refused17.2%
- Withdrawn before a decision849
- All applications11.3% refused
Questions
How many care home planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 11,040 since January 2016, 1,081 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to March 2026.
Which councils receive the most care home applications?
Birmingham, Somerset and Leicester have received the most since 2016.
How often are care home applications refused?
Of 7,371 received 2016 to 2024 and decided, 17.2% were refused, well above the 11.3% for all applications.
Do these figures include children's homes?
No. Children's homes have their own topic in the Index; this one counts care homes, nursing homes and rest homes.
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
Small care settings for up to six residents living as one household fall within class C3, the use class for houses, and need no change of use application.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names care homes 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 care home 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 care home 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.
- Refusals: applications received 2016 to 2024 and decided, at councils whose published decisions pass our checks against their decision notices. Approvals and refusals count; withdrawals do not. "All applications" means every decision of that kind at the same councils over the same years. Applications received from 2025 are added once most are decided.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- Class C3 covers up to six residents living together as a single household where care is provided; class C2 covers residential institutions. legislation.gov.uk