Hot food takeaway planning trends
Councils received 616 hot food takeaway applications in the 12 months to September 2026, after a peak of 1,524 in the year to June 2021.
Hot food takeaway applications since 2016
Hot food takeaway applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA rise in 2020 and 2021
Takeaway applications rose from 857 in 2019 to 1,409 in 2021, the years of the pandemic, then fell to 582 in 2025. Their share went from 15 in every 10,000 applications to 22, and then 13. The hot food takeaway planning index stands at 81.
Scotland leads
From 2023 to 2025, Scotland had 39 hot food takeaway applications in every 10,000 and the North West 20, against 15 across the UK. The South East had 7.3, the lowest.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 130 hot food takeaway applications in Q3 2026: 13 in every 10,000 applications, against 13 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 6% lower than a year earlier.
Hot food takeaway applications each quarter
130 in Q3 2026, against 147 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 13 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 13 a year earlier.
Where hot food takeaway applications concentrate
By region
Hot food takeaway applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 51 in every 10,000 329 -
Glasgow
Scotland · 70 in every 10,000 187 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 29 in every 10,000 172 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 31 in every 10,000 124 -
Manchester
North West · 43 in every 10,000 116 -
Sheffield
Yorkshire and Humber · 40 in every 10,000 113 -
Kirklees
Yorkshire and Humber · 37 in every 10,000 110 -
North Lanarkshire
Scotland · 96 in every 10,000 109 -
Durham
North East · 39 in every 10,000 107 -
Fife
Scotland · 40 in every 10,000 107
Latest hot food takeaway applications
- 125 Queensberry Street Dumfries Change of use of shop (class 1a) to hot food takeaway (sui generis) and installation of ductwork
- 1 Merkland Road East Aberdeen Change of use from class 4 (business) to hot food takeaway (sui generis)
- 3 To 5 Main Street Barrhead East Renfrewshire Change of use of public house to hot food takeaway and retail unit on the ground floor and studio/office on the lower ground floor with the installation of new shopfronts at ground floor level and installation of a flue at the rear (corrected description)
- Cherry Tree Inn Crawley Road Faygate West Sussex Change of Use from Public House (A4) to Hot Food Takeaway (A5). Demolition of existing single storey rear extension. Erection of rear extension, including internal and external alterations, with associated parking and landscaping (listed building consent)
- 104 Town Street Armley Leeds Change of use of retail unit to hot food take away; extract flue to rear
- 236 High Street, Bromley Change of Use of Ground Floor Solicitors Office (Use Class E) to a Fast Food Take Away (Use Class A5) and provision of refuse and recycle bins at rear.
Questions
How many hot food takeaway planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 9,943 since January 2016, 616 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to June 2021.
Which councils receive the most hot food takeaway applications?
Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds have received the most since 2016.
Do hot food takeaways need planning permission?
In England, yes. Since 1 September 2020 hot food takeaways have been sui generis, outside use class E, so opening one in a former shop or café needs planning permission. Before that they were Class A5.
Can councils refuse takeaways near schools?
In England, policy HC5 of the 2026 National Planning Policy Framework tells councils to refuse hot food takeaways within reasonable walking distance of schools outside designated town centres, and where a cluster of them is shown to harm health or cause pollution or anti-social behaviour.
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 new hot food takeaways only: a change of use to one, a new unit or van, or a use certificate. Coffee shops, cafés, cold food and works at an existing takeaway are left out.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names hot food takeaways 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 hot food takeaway 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 hot food takeaway 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 Use Classes (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020, in force 1 September 2020, made hot food takeaways sui generis, outside Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses). legislation.gov.uk
- Policy HC5 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2026) tells councils to refuse hot food takeaways within reasonable walking distance of schools outside designated town centres, and where a concentration harms health or causes pollution or anti-social behaviour. gov.uk