Garden office planning trends
The garden office planning index stands at 232: more than twice its 2016 share, and 11% below its 2021 peak.
Garden office applications since 2016
Garden office applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA 2020 step up that held
The garden office planning index peaked at 262 in the 12 months to December 2021, on 5,777 applications. The count has since fallen to 3,485, but the share of all applications is level with three years earlier.
Highest in the South and East
Over 2023 to 2025, the South East had 106 garden office applications in every 10,000, the East of England 105 and the South West 103, against 80 across the UK. The North West had the fewest, 58, with London on 59.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 868 garden office applications in Q3 2026: 84 in every 10,000 applications, against 78 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 8% higher than a year earlier.
Garden office applications each quarter
868 in Q3 2026, against 852 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 84 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 78 a year earlier.
Where garden office applications concentrate
By region
Garden office applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Wiltshire
South West · 119 in every 10,000 675 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 81 in every 10,000 543 -
Cornwall
South West · 64 in every 10,000 494 -
Somerset
South West · 85 in every 10,000 488 -
South Downs National Park
South East · 151 in every 10,000 483 -
City of Edinburgh
Scotland · 96 in every 10,000 475 -
Dorset
South West · 88 in every 10,000 424 -
South Oxfordshire
South East · 168 in every 10,000 393 -
Bath and North East Somerset
South West · 146 in every 10,000 387 -
Wealden
South East · 151 in every 10,000 369
Latest garden office applications
- 22 Oakfield Lane, Keston Part demolition at front and rear and erection of two storey front and rear extensions, garden patio and steps. Roof alterations comprising of increase in height of main roof ridge with solar panels and elevational alterations. Detached single storey ancillary outbuilding with decking for a gymnasium, home office and landscaping
- 35 Buckingham Avenue London Erection of a rear outbuilding for use as gym, office, changing room and plant room, new swimming pool and shed for bike storage
- 4 Wimborne Avenue, Chislehurst Single storey outbuilding to rear of garden accommodating a gym, office, Jacuzzi and toilet . LAWFUL DEVELOPMENT CERTIFICATE (PROPOSED)
- 6a Woodland Drive, Dungiven Erection of single storey garden room to include gym, games area, WC and external covered area
- High Beeches Bourton-on-the-Hill Moreton-In-Marsh Gloucestershire Construction of subterranean outbuildings with landscaped roofs and erection of single storey garden room within the garden to form ancillary accommodation
- 15 Lake Road Croydon Erection of a single storey detached garden room / summer house in the rear garden to be used as a garden gym and storage
Questions
How many garden office planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 36,526 since January 2016, 3,484 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2021.
Which councils receive the most garden office applications?
Wiltshire, North Yorkshire and Cornwall have received the most since 2016.
Are garden office planning applications falling?
The count fell from 5,843 in the 12 months to September 2021 to 3,484 in the 12 months to September 2026. As a share of all applications, it is level with three years earlier.
Does every garden office need planning permission?
In England, Part 1 Class E of the 2015 General Permitted Development Order allows outbuildings incidental to a house within limits on siting, height and garden coverage. Tighter limits apply on designated land, such as national parks. These figures count applications, not buildings.
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
Part 1 Class E permitted development, the householder outbuilding right, lets householders in England build a garden outbuilding within size and siting limits without an application. Tighter limits apply on designated land, such as national parks.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names garden offices 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 garden office 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 garden office 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 E permits outbuildings incidental to a house in England within siting, height and coverage limits, with tighter limits on designated land such as national parks. legislation.gov.uk