Gym planning trends
Gyms took a share of planning applications 12% above three years earlier in the 12 months to September 2026, close to their 2025 peak.
Gym applications since 2016
Gym applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredClose to the high again
The gym planning index peaked at 160 in the 12 months to June 2025 and stood at 157 in September 2026, 57% above the 2016 share. Councils received 2,602 gym applications in the 12 months to September 2026; about half were home gyms.
Outer west London and Slough
Since 2016 Ealing has received 906 gym applications, the most of any council, then Hillingdon 679 and Harrow 617. Slough has the highest share among the leaders: 386 in every 10,000 of its applications. Many are garden outbuildings used as home gyms.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 618 gym applications in Q3 2026: 60 in every 10,000 applications, against 57 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 6% higher than a year earlier.
Gym applications each quarter
618 in Q3 2026, against 622 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 60 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 57 a year earlier.
Where gym applications concentrate
By region
Gym applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Ealing
London · 226 in every 10,000 906 -
Hillingdon
London · 211 in every 10,000 679 -
Harrow
London · 161 in every 10,000 617 -
Slough
South East · 387 in every 10,000 528 -
Hounslow
London · 126 in every 10,000 401 -
Havering
London · 134 in every 10,000 398 -
Bromley
London · 72 in every 10,000 298 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 42 in every 10,000 281 -
Cornwall
South West · 34 in every 10,000 259 -
Wiltshire
South West · 44 in every 10,000 251
Latest gym 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
- 16 Linkwood Place Elgin Moray Proposed change of use to from industrial unit to private membership-based group coaching fitness facility at
- 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
- Unit 2 Omni Park, Former Rexi Jacks, 34 Kelvin Road, Omagh, Co. Tyrone Change of use from restaurant to gym together with external alterations
Questions
How many gym planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 28,899 since January 2016, 2,602 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to June 2025.
Which councils get the most gym applications?
Ealing, Hillingdon and Harrow have received the most since 2016.
Are gym applications rising or falling?
Rising over three years. The gym share in the 12 months to September 2026 was 12% higher than three years earlier, and the gym planning index stood at 157, just below its June 2025 peak of 160.
Which region has the highest rate of gym applications?
Across 2023 to 2025, Northern Ireland had 81 gym applications in every 10,000, from 250 applications, ahead of the South East on 78 and London on 64. The UK figure was 57. Scotland had the fewest, 36.
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 a change of use to a gym from another Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses) use, such as a shop or office, has not been development in England, so many high street gym conversions need no application.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names gyms 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 gym 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 gym 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
- The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 put premises for indoor sport, recreation or fitness into Class E from 1 September 2020, in England only. legislation.gov.uk