Conservatory planning trends
Conservatory applications are down 41% on their 2021 peak, but the conservatory planning index stands at 92, a little below their 2016 share.
Conservatory applications since 2016
Conservatory applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA pandemic peak, then a long fall
Councils received 24,298 conservatory applications in 2021, the most in any year since 2016. The count fell to 15,206 in 2025 and 14,434 in the 12 months to September 2026. Conservatories' share of applications peaked in the 12 months to March 2022.
Highest in the South East
From 2023 to 2025 the South East received 494 conservatory applications in every 10,000, against 337 across the UK. Scotland, on 125, and Northern Ireland, on 136, were lowest. North Yorkshire has had the most since 2016, with 2,870.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 3,237 conservatory applications in Q3 2026: 315 in every 10,000 applications, against 317 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 1% lower than a year earlier.
Conservatory applications each quarter
3,237 in Q3 2026, against 3,468 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 315 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 317 a year earlier.
Where conservatory applications concentrate
By region
Conservatory applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 426 in every 10,000 2,870 -
Wiltshire
South West · 474 in every 10,000 2,686 -
Cornwall
South West · 325 in every 10,000 2,511 -
Dorset
South West · 483 in every 10,000 2,342 -
Somerset
South West · 377 in every 10,000 2,155 -
Barnet
London · 355 in every 10,000 1,928 -
Bromley
London · 455 in every 10,000 1,874 -
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
South West · 512 in every 10,000 1,832 -
Wokingham
South East · 865 in every 10,000 1,822 -
City of Edinburgh
Scotland · 356 in every 10,000 1,770
Latest conservatory applications
- 5 Eastgate Stobhill Gate Morpeth Northumberland Install a PVCU conservatory to side of property
- 13, The Avenue, Kew, Richmond Demolition of conservatory and rear sunroom, new single storey rear/side extension, rear dormer window with internal/external alterations
- 18 Cromwell Way Kidlington Replace existing rear conservatory with larger single storey extension. Alterations to openings in side elevation and repositioning of the existing garage
- 10 Kingswood Road, Penge, London Demolition of existing rear conservatory, construction of single storey rear extension.
- 5 Devon Close Rainham Gillingham Medway Construction of a single story rear extension - demolition of existing conservatory
- West View Bungalow, Main Road, East Boldre, Brockenhurst Replacement conservatory; new porch; alterations to doors and windows
Questions
How many conservatory planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 206,679 since January 2016, 14,434 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to March 2022.
Which councils get the most conservatory applications?
North Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Cornwall have received the most since 2016.
Are conservatory applications rising or falling?
Falling on the count, from 24,298 in 2021 to 14,434 in the 12 months to September 2026. As a share of all applications it is 3% lower than three years earlier, and the conservatory planning index stands at 92.
Do conservatories need planning permission?
Planning Portal guidance treats a conservatory as an extension, which in England can often be built under permitted development within set limits. Flats, maisonettes, converted houses and homes where the right has been removed are excluded from that right.
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 conservatories in England need no planning application under permitted development. These figures include applications that remove or replace an existing conservatory.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names conservatories 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 conservatory 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 conservatory 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
- Conservatories are treated as extensions and are permitted development subject to limits and conditions, with flats, maisonettes, converted houses and properties under a planning condition or Article 4 direction (a council order that removes a permitted development right in an area) excluded planningportal.co.uk