Cash machine planning trends
The cash machine planning index stands at 46, less than half the 2016 share, on 776 applications in the year to September 2026.
Cash machine applications since 2016
Cash machine applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA steep fall, then a plateau
Cash machines' share fell from 39 in every 10,000 applications in 2016 to 8.9 in 2021. It recovered to 20 in 2022 and has stayed between 15 and 18 since. The network shrank too: LINK counted 70,588 machines in 2015 and 42,403 in 2025.
Scotland and the North East lead
From 2023 to 2025 Scotland and the North East each received 28 cash machine applications in every 10,000, against 17 across the UK. Wales followed on 27, and the South East was lowest on 11. Birmingham has the most since 2016, with 376.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 168 cash machine applications in Q3 2026: 16 in every 10,000 applications, against 17 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 5% lower than a year earlier.
Cash machine applications each quarter
168 in Q3 2026, against 188 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 16 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 17 a year earlier.
Where cash machine applications concentrate
By region
Cash machine applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 59 in every 10,000 376 -
Glasgow
Scotland · 98 in every 10,000 261 -
Liverpool
North West · 89 in every 10,000 244 -
City of Edinburgh
Scotland · 49 in every 10,000 241 -
Manchester
North West · 66 in every 10,000 179 -
Westminster
London · 26 in every 10,000 158 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 26 in every 10,000 156 -
Tower Hamlets
London · 82 in every 10,000 134 -
Cornwall
South West · 16 in every 10,000 123 -
Coventry
West Midlands · 54 in every 10,000 120
Latest cash machine applications
- 5 - 6 Union Street Wednesbury Proposed ATM machine.
- Barclays 44 - 46 Castle Street Shrewsbury Shropshire Replacement of 1No. ATM with illuminated shroud and replacement section of shopfront glazing.
- Barclays 44 - 46 Castle Street Shrewsbury Shropshire Replacement of 1No. ATM with illuminated shroud.
- Halifax 16 - 20 High Street Maidenhead Alterations to the front elevation to include installation of new windows and entrance doors to ground floor following removal of existing windows, door and ATM opening.
- Shell Northway Lydiate Partial redevelopment of the existing service station including the removal of the jet wash bay and wash plant room, the erection of an extension to the existing sales building, provision of EV charging bays with associated plant and canopy, erection of a new ATM building and GRP wash plant room, a new brick substation and other associated works.
- 16 Newnham Parade Cheshunt Hertfordshire Replacement shopfront with sliding entrance door, removal of existing ATM and security shutter arrangements
Questions
How many cash machine planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 13,150 since January 2016, 778 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to August 2017.
Which councils get the most cash machine applications?
Birmingham, Glasgow and Liverpool have received the most since 2016.
Why have cash machine applications fallen since 2016?
The fall came with a smaller network: LINK counted 70,588 cash machines in 2015 and 42,403 in 2025.
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
Many of these applications are advertisement consents for illuminated surrounds, replacements or removals, so the figures track work on cash machines of every kind, not only new ones.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names cash machines 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 cash machine 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 cash machine 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
- LINK counted 70,588 UK cash machines in 2015 and 42,403 in 2025. link.co.uk