Farm shop planning trends
The farm shop planning index stands at 107: a little above its 2016 share, after 2025 brought the fewest applications of any year since 2016.
Farm shop applications since 2016
Farm shop applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredBack up from a 2025 low
The farm shop share peaked at 3.2 in every 10,000 applications in the year to March 2021, and again in 2023. 2025 brought 102, the fewest since 2016. From January to September 2026 the share was 2.6 in every 10,000, up from 2.2 in 2025.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 28 farm shop applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Farm shop applications each quarter
28 in Q3 2026, against 32 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 2.7 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 2.9 a year earlier.
Where farm shop applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Somerset
South West · 7.2 in every 10,000 41 -
Cornwall
South West · 4.9 in every 10,000 38 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.0 in every 10,000 34 -
Dorset
South West · 6.6 in every 10,000 32 -
Wiltshire
South West · 5.5 in every 10,000 31 -
East Devon
South West · 14 in every 10,000 30 -
South Downs National Park
South East · 6.9 in every 10,000 22 -
South Norfolk and Broadland (shared register)
East of England · 7.8 in every 10,000 22 -
Babergh and Mid Suffolk (shared register)
East of England · 7.2 in every 10,000 20 -
Cheshire East
North West · 5.2 in every 10,000 20
Latest farm shop applications
- Land to the east of The Street, The Street, Castle Combe Erection of farm shop wirth associated works
- Land South West Of Glebe Farm Lincoln Road Thimbleby Lincolnshire Planning Permission - Erection of a building to be used as a self-serve farm shop and construction of an associated car park.
- Proposed Tearoom And Shop At Eastfield Farm Main Road Maltby Le Marsh Lincolnshire Planning Permission - Change of use of existing building to provide a farm shop, tea room and plant nursery sales area including the relocation and expansion of established uses within the former farmstead (works commenced).
- Denniker Farm Shop, Ruston Bridge Road, Fletching Extension to Farm Shop and pergola
- Millfield House, 68 Benagh Road, Kilkeel Conversion of existing Farm Building to Farm Shop and Tea Room with new car park
- Narrowgate Farm Fir Lane Royton Oldham 1) Conversion of vacant barn, including roof extension, to create farm shop and cafe (Use Class E(a)) 2) Enlargement of kitchen to existing farmhouse
Questions
How many farm shop planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 1,464 since January 2016, 114 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to November 2023.
Which councils receive the most farm shop applications?
Somerset, Cornwall and North Yorkshire have received the most since 2016.
Are farm shop applications rising or falling?
Falling over three years. In the 12 months to September 2026 the share was 2.6 in every 10,000 applications, 12% below three years earlier. 2025 had the fewest since 2016, 102. The farm shop planning index is 107: a little above its 2016 share.
How many farm shops are there?
Harper Adams University research funded by the Farm Retail Association, published in March 2022, estimated 1,581 farm retailers, with £1.4bn of sales and 25,000 staff. Planning applications measure proposals, and some are extensions to shops already trading.
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
In England, Class R lets farm buildings become shops by prior approval. Its floorspace cap doubled to 1,000 square metres in May 2024.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names farm shops 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 farm shop 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 farm shop 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
- SI 2024/579 amended Class R and came into force on 21 May 2024. legislation.gov.uk
- Class R lets agricultural buildings change to flexible commercial use, including shops, by prior approval, and the cap was raised from 500 to 1,000 square metres. trowers.com
- Harper Adams research, published 2 March 2022, estimated 1,581 farm retailers with £1.4bn of sales and 25,000 employees. harper-adams.ac.uk