Wall insulation and retrofit planning trends
Councils received 1,632 wall insulation applications in the 12 months to September 2026, down from 2,434 in the year to March 2025.
Wall insulation and retrofit applications since 2016
Wall insulation and retrofit applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measured5 times the 2018 share by 2024
Wall insulation and retrofit made up 10 in every 10,000 applications in 2018 and 53 in 2024, on 2,393 applications. Councils and housing associations often apply house by house in batches, so one programme can move a year.
Down since March 2025
The share peaked at 53 in every 10,000 applications in the 12 months to March 2025 and is now 38. The wall insulation planning index stands at 152.
Highest in the East Midlands and the West Midlands
From 2023 to 2025, the East Midlands had 119 wall insulation applications in every 10,000 and the West Midlands 86, against 46 across the UK. Northern Ireland had 11, the lowest.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 333 wall insulation and retrofit applications in Q3 2026: 32 in every 10,000 applications, against 42 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 23% lower than a year earlier.
Wall insulation and retrofit applications each quarter
333 in Q3 2026, against 460 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 32 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 42 a year earlier.
Where wall insulation and retrofit applications concentrate
By region
Wall insulation and retrofit applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Liverpool
North West · 325 in every 10,000 888 -
Leicester
East Midlands · 293 in every 10,000 593 -
Coventry
West Midlands · 185 in every 10,000 409 -
Hounslow
London · 115 in every 10,000 365 -
Enfield
London · 82 in every 10,000 280 -
Cambridge
East of England · 170 in every 10,000 279 -
Nottingham
East Midlands · 176 in every 10,000 272 -
Barnet
London · 47 in every 10,000 253 -
Waltham Forest
London · 83 in every 10,000 248 -
Bristol
South West · 61 in every 10,000 229
Latest wall insulation and retrofit applications
- Crawshay Court, Eagleswell Road, Llantwit Major Energy efficiency retrofit works, comprising of 25 flats. Improvements to the thermal performance (via external wall and roof insulation, new windows, enhanced air-tightness), replacement of the mechanical ventilation system, conversion of the existing flat roof to a pitched roof and introduction of solar panels, general aesthetic improvements, a small single-storey extension to the rear, minor internal remodelling of the lounge area, and works to the external landscaping, including provision of visitor parking bays.
- 113 Kitwood Avenue Dordon Driveway alterations with boundary treatments, porch to front, external wall insulation & 2No. Air conditioning condenser units to front & side (Part retrospective)
- Pernettya Sinclair Street Dunblane Internal and external alterations including removal of walls, thermal upgrades to wall and floor, replacing suspended timber floor with concrete slab, ensuite to 1st floor, new gas boiler with flue through wall, formation of unheated store under sunroom, lower of ground level to rear of property including altered/new steps, pushing back existing gate at side of house, replacement of all windows and doors, roofing and chimney repairs and new rainwater perimeter drainage added
- Darren Bungalows King Edward Street Blaengarw Retrofit measures designed to improve building performance and reduce carbon emissions including: Mechanical ventilation improvements; External wall insulation (EWI); Loft insulation; Flat roof insulation; Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs); Solar diverters; Battery storage systems; Roof-mounted photovol...
- 119 Albert Street London Building retrofit works including internal insulation to front and rear walls at basement, ground, second and third floor, raising the height of the main roof to accommodate new insulation, replacement of existing rooflight on the main roof, replacement of some timber sliding sash windows with double glazed sashes to both the front and rear elevations, replacement basement entrance doors, introduction of a pod WC at second floor level, alterations to drainage, guttering and rainwater downpipes and a new air source heat pump on the main roof.
- 28 North Bar Without Beverley East Riding Of Yorkshire Listed Building Consent for the replacement of two rear bay window panels with external timber boarding, internal insulation and plasterboard finish; replacement insulation to the bay window ceiling; installation of a drainage channel around the external ground-level perimeter; replacement rear patio doors; painting of internal timber wall panelling within the lounge; and repair and replacement of floor structures and floorboards, as necessary, within both sitting rooms
Questions
How many wall insulation planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 14,570 since January 2016, 1,632 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2024.
Which councils receive the most wall insulation applications?
Liverpool, Leicester and Coventry have received the most since 2016.
Does external wall insulation need planning permission?
On a house in England, permitted development needs materials of similar appearance to the existing walls, so rendered insulation on a brick house usually needs an application. In conservation areas and national parks, cladding in render is excluded outright. Listed buildings need listed building consent.
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 for wall insulation and named energy retrofits on existing buildings, mostly the external kind that changes how a building looks. Insulation that keeps the look, and loft and cavity work, rarely needs an application.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names wall insulation and retrofit 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 wall insulation and retrofit 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 wall insulation and retrofit 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
- Part 1, Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 requires exterior materials of similar appearance to the existing house (A.3(a)) and excludes cladding in render on article 2(3) land (A.2(a)). legislation.gov.uk
- Works affecting a listed building's character need listed building consent under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. legislation.gov.uk