Former bank conversion planning trends
Councils received 151 former bank conversion applications in the 12 months to September 2026, below the 270 of 2019, the peak year.
Former bank conversion applications since 2016
Former bank conversion applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA 2019 peak, then a lower plateau
Former bank conversions peaked at 270 applications in 2019. The count fell to 178 in 2020, the year England folded banks into Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses), then ran at 188 to 199 a year until 2023. It was 143 in 2024 and 150 in 2025.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 44 former bank conversion applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Former bank conversion applications each quarter
44 in Q3 2026, against 34 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 4.3 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 3.1 a year earlier.
Where former bank conversion applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 7.4 in every 10,000 44 -
Cornwall
South West · 5.2 in every 10,000 40 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.3 in every 10,000 36 -
City of Edinburgh
Scotland · 7.0 in every 10,000 35 -
Fife
Scotland · 9.7 in every 10,000 26 -
Dumfries and Galloway
Scotland · 15 in every 10,000 25 -
Birmingham
West Midlands · 3.7 in every 10,000 24 -
Manchester
North West · 8.9 in every 10,000 24 -
Belfast
Northern Ireland · 13 in every 10,000 22 -
Liverpool
North West · 7.3 in every 10,000 20
Latest former bank conversion applications
- 1 Marlborough Seaham Conversion of former bank to mixed use building comprising office (Use Class E) to the ground-floor and short-term respite accommodation for up to two people to the first-floor
- 49 Market Place Wetherby Change of Use from Bank to Estate Agents Office (Class E) and alterations to shop frontage
- 12 High Street, Newtown Change of use of the former Bank to a Nail Bar and Spa (retrospective)
- 20-22 High Street, Biggleswade Conversion of a previous bank (Use Class E(c ) (i) ) to hot food take away restaurant (Use Class Sui Generis) Installation of a kitchen ventilation duct and front door
- Lloyds Bank 1 - 3 London Road East Grinstead West Sussex Change of use and conversion of the vacant upper floors of the former bank to provide 5 no. self-contained residential apartments (Use Class C3), retention of flexible Class E commercial accommodation at ground floor level, erection of cycle and refuse stores, and associated internal and external alterations.
- 4-6, St Johns Hill, London Alterations including amalgamation of Units 11 and 12 and change of use of the former Halifax bank at Unit 11 Class E(c) (financial services) and former Sports Bar and Grill from Sui Generis (Public House) at Unit 12 to Use Class E(a), (b), (c) or (d).
Questions
How many former bank conversion planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 2,054 since January 2016, 151 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2019.
Where are the most former bank conversions proposed?
Leeds, Cornwall and North Yorkshire have received the most since 2016.
Why did former bank applications fall after 2019?
The count fell from 270 in 2019 to 178 in 2020. That coincides with the pandemic and with England's Class E, in force from 1 September 2020, which put banks, shops, cafes and offices into one use class.
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
Since 1 September 2020, England's Class E has covered banks, shops, cafes and offices, so a former branch becoming one of those there usually needs no change of use application.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names former bank conversions 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 former bank conversion 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 former bank conversion 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
- Class E, in force in England from 1 September 2020, merged financial and professional services, including banks, with shops, cafes and offices. legislation.gov.uk